A Change of Scenery
by living-is-easy-with-eyes-closed
Summary: A man in the park gives Harry an offer he thought he'd never receive. Will Harry take him up on this offer, or will he continue to live is life as is. Can this man change the life of the troubled teen? Rated for language.
1. Reflections

**A Change of Scenery **

This is just an idea I had about how Harry's life could have changed if events in the third story had gone differently and how the events in Harry's life prier to these changes would have made his personality.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all belongs to J.K. Rowling

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The sun began to set on the English suburb. The park started to empty out as the sky grew darker. With each passing moment the laughter in the park died down before becoming completely silent. There was still enough light to see. The boy with the messy black hair decided to stay a while longer.

He sat down on one of the swings, making it move slightly. Making sure there were no children around, the boy took out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. After a puff of smoke escaped from his lips the boy sighed. He really needed this. It had been a while since he was able to come across a pack; however, recently he had become friends with the right people and was now able to get things whenever he wanted.

Brock. Thank goodness for Brock. Brock was the neighborhood go-to-guy. If you were looking for something he could get it. If you wanted drugs, he'd have it the next day; a pack of cigarettes, no problem.

The boy wasn't into the heavy stuff, not yet anyway. For now a few packs of cigarettes would be just fine. He was only twelve, almost thirteen. He knew that he shouldn't be smoking, but at the same time he really didn't care. They helped him relax.

One thing this boy desperately needed was relaxation. His life wasn't exactly care free and happy go lucky. When you're famous, there is always pressure on you.

He was supposed to be their savior or something like that. He laughed when he thought about it. Him, a savior; now that was truly funny. How on earth was a scrawny thirteen-year-old with glasses and messy hair going to save the world from its most feared villain?

It just wasn't practical. Honestly, were these people crazy? How on earth could he actually save anyone when he couldn't even get his own life under control?

Okay, there was that time when he was eleven, but that was just a fluke, right? I mean, He never actually _had_ to do anything to save that stupid stone; the whole thing wasn't really his problem. He just sort of got caught in the moment. Plus, he thought the whole thing had to do with the teacher he hated, he would have done anything to get Snape fired; too bad Snape hadn't been the bad guy.

And there was that time when he was twelve and helped his friend Ron save his sister. I mean, anyone would have done that. Ron was Harry's friend. He just thought he should help Ron out because Ron had helped him with the whole stone thing. He was just paying him back, right?

He was a loner for the most part. He wasn't really unfriendly or anything like that, he just wasn't really interested in other people's crap lately. Ron and Hermione were the closets friends he had; only he had not been a very good friend to them lately.

He met them when they were eleven. He was much friendlier back then, much easier to approach and start a conversation with. But recently he had become cold and distant. He hadn't written back to any of their letter at all this summer. He assumed that they were probably worried.

If Ron or Hermione had ever found out about the smoking they would probably have killed him. He could just imagine it now. Hermione yelling how smoking causes lung cancer and what it does to the rest of your body.

He didn't really care. Can't magic fix cancer anyhow? That's right, magic. Harry Potter wasn't just a regular boy with messy hair and glasses. He was a wizard, and one of the most famous ones to be exact _and_ he went to one of the best wizarding schools around, Hogwarts. Unfortunately the reason Harry was famous doesn't exactly make for the happiest story.

When Harry was a baby his parents were killed by the most powerful wizard of the time, Voldemort. He tried to kill Harry too, only Voldemort's plan backfired. Instead of killing Harry with a nasty curse the tables turned and Voldemort lost most of his powers. Voldemort disappeared from the wizarding world after that day. Many believed him to be dead, but the wise knew he was somewhere out there, somewhere, trying to get back his strength so he could try to come back to power one day.

Harry had two encounters with Voldemort. Once, when he was eleven and he had tried to steal the philosopher's stone so he could come back to power. Harry was able to stop him, though Voldemort still escaped. Then, in Harry's second year Voldemort tried coming back to power through his old journal, luckily for everyone, his attempt was a failure.

School would be starting again for Harry in a few weeks. The only reason he was eager to go back was because it meant he'd be able to get away from his aunt and uncle. After Harry's parents died Harry was sent to live with his mother's sister. Harry's aunt and uncle weren't the nicest of people. They made Harry sleep in a cupboard under the stairs until he was eleven and started Hogwarts. They hated Harry because they hated magic and magic ran through every fiber of Harry's body.

Harry never told anyone about what his life at the Dursleys was like. He would just tell them that they weren't very nice people if anyone every asked about them. Harry kept everything bottled up inside, not wanting anyone to know about his past. The beatings and the mistreatment weren't exactly the nicest thing to bring up in conversation.

Oh yes, there were beatings. Could you expect a family who made their nephew sleep under the stairs be capable of any type of kindness towards him? The beatings had died down quite a bit since Harry started Hogwarts. Maybe it was out of fear because Harry could do magic or maybe it was from fear of someone finding out what as really going on, the Dursleys rarely touched Harry at this point…well, except for last night anyway.

The shirt on Harry's back covered the large bruise. Harry's cousin, Dudley, had gotten mad at him and pushed him into the kitchen counter. The edges of the counter are rather pointy so safe to say, when Harry's thin body smashed into the counter, the result wasn't very nice. Then uncle Vernon punched him in the stomach for making Dudley upset.

Harry sighed as he shifted on the swing uncomfortable. His back was bothering him a little. He felt very stiff. He took another drag of the cigarette and closed his eyes, feeling the tension release from his body.

For a long time, Harry wished he could leave the Dursleys and go someplace else. He'd thought about running away for a long time now, but he knew if he did he'd have no place to go. Harry ran away one time when he was six. He was hiding out in the park when a cop found him and brought him home. Uncle Vernon wasn't very happy with him when the cop brought him back. To this day Harry still has scars on his back from his uncle's belt.

Harry always wondered what it would have been like if he hadn't grown up with the Dursleys. He'd always dreamed of someone showing up one day and just taking him out of there. Before Harry could dwell on his pathetic life any longer a man sat down next to him on the swing and asked, "Aren't you too young to smoke?"

Harry gave the man a strange look that said 'I'll do whatever the fuck I want you crazy bastard'. Harry just shrugged at the man and said, "Doesn't matter."

"I think it does." The man replied

"How nice for you." Harry responded coldly

Who the hell was this guy? Harry had never seen him around the park before. He had black, shoulder-length hair. His face was sort of pale, as though he hadn't been out in the sun for a while. His grey eyes were fixed on Harry. Every time Harry took a drag from the cigarette the man looked like he wanted to rip it right out of Harry's mouth.

The man was wearing a really nice brown leather jacket and leather boots. He had on a white tee-shirt and a pair of jeans. On top of his head was a pair of sunglasses. Harry thought to himself 'What type of person needs sunglasses when it's almost night?"

"So, Harry," The man said, "Are we going to do this the easy way or are you going to be difficult?"

"What are you talking about I-wait; how the hell do you know who I am?" Harry asked as he quickly got off the swing and stepped away from the man, pulling his wand out of his pocket.

The man raised and eyebrow at Harry and said in an amused tone, "Is that really necessary?"

"Who the hell are you and how do you know who I am?"

"Put the wand down, I'm Sirius." The man said, slowly standing up

"Stay where you are, now I'm serious." Harry replied

"No," The man said, "Not _serious_, Sirius. S-I-R-I-U-S. Sirius Black, I'm here to get you."

"Get me? What the hell does that mean?"

"I'm your godfather. I came to get you, bring you back to my place for the rest of the summer."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, I don't even know who you are." Harry protested

Sirius sighed, "Okay, it was just an offer. I'll just leave you be then. I assumed this would happen. You don't have to come; you can stay with your relatives, its fine. But, if you change your mind, send a letter to Dumbledore; he'll know where to reach me. Well, see you around then, Harry." Sirius said and then walked away leaving Harry to reflect in his own thoughts.

"What the hell just happened?" Harry asked himself when he was alone again.

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"So, I'm taking it that it didn't go so well."

"Not quite." Sirius sighed as he took a sip of the beer in his hand, "Naturally he was suspicious and I don't think he really believed what I had told him. I just hope that I sparked his interest enough to try and find me."

"Maybe you should have waited a while before you approached him like Dumbledore had suggested, you know, waited till things quieted down for you." Said the other man. He had brown hair that was speckled gray and honey colored eyes.

"I didn't want to wait. I want him to come live with me. I want him to trust me. I haven't been part of his life for a long time, Remus; I have to make it up to him. Maybe I should have Dumbledore talk to him or something." Sirius said

"You already know how Dumbledore feels about you taking Harry. He's safest with the Dursleys." Remus said, "Dumbledore only agreed that Harry could live with you if you gained his trust that way the wards around your place would be safe."

"I know Remus; I _was_ in the room when the three of us talked about this." Sirius said bitterly

Remus gave him a small smile, "What's he like?"

"Well, he's stubborn, just like Lily and he looks exactly like James but with Lily's eyes. But he has the attitude of his godfather." Sirius said with a half smiled which turned to a frown, "He was smoking."

"Was he now?"

"I wanted to yank the cigarette right out of his hand." Sirius grinned

"If I remember correctly, you smoked at his age." Remus said

"Yeah, but I quit."

"Not on your own."

"I know, but I can't exactly help him stop like you and James helped me if he won't even come near me."

"Harry will need to earn your trust before you can help him."

"I know. I think I'm going to have to tell him about everything." Sirius said

"Everything?" Remus asked

"Everything. Everything from what happened when James and Lily died to now." Sirius said, looking towards the floor, "I want him to understand that I wasn't able to be there for him then, but I want to be part of his life now."

"It's a start." Remus said, "What do you think he's doing right now?"

"Probably having dinner with his aunt and uncle, telling them about the creep in the leather jacket he met in the park."

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"Uncle Vernon?"

"What boy?"

"Do-er-do I have a godfather?"

"Not that I know of, now clear the table."

"Right." Harry said and started to clear the table. For the rest of the night, Harry's thoughts were on Sirius, and whether or not he should try and contact him.

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An: Okay, this is just an idea I had. This is obviously an alternate universe type story.

In the next chapter I'm going to have Sirius and Harry meet up again. I will explain later why Sirius isn't in Azkaban and why everything is okay for him to go walking around in public.

Just too clear things up, Remus and Sirius don't live together, this **isn't a slash**; they were just talking because Remus knows about the situation and everything like that. So please read and review. I want to know if I should even bother finishing this one.

**And I had an idea that I might want to run through this, lets just say, hypothetically of course (wink), if Sirius and Harry were to have a fight, like how parents and kids fight, what do you think Harry would have to do to get Sirius really, really mad? **


	2. Meetings

Chapter 2: Meetings

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The park was a huge place. Besides its typical playground it also had a wooded area with many different paths. One path led to a shallow duck pond where parents and children often went to feed the birds. Other paths were just trails for walking and bike riding. During the day they were normally busy with people walking among the trees and shrubs. But at night, the park took on a different persona.

The playground was completely empty once it got dark. You'd see the occasional night jogger or a few couples walking around the pond. But if a person was to step off of the paths, they might meet a rather unexpected group lingering.

Off route from one particular path led to _their_ hangout. It was secluded and you could easily get lost in the woods if you didn't know where you were heading. If you had been successful in your journey there you'd be greeted by three large sitting rocks. That is were _they_ hung out. Where deals were made. Not even the cops went into that part of the woods at night.

It was sort of an unwritten code not to go into those woods at night. The kids who hung around there weren't the type of kids you'd take home to mom and dad. They were liars, trash. Idiots, all of them were idiots. Well, all except Brock.

At first glimpse you'd see an average kid. Handsome face, muscular physic. He was tall, six foot one to be exact. Brock was young, only eighteen, and his face was clean shaven. His dirty blond hair was long, not too long though. He wore nice fitting jeans and brand name shirts and his usual black leather jacket. His outer appearance would never make you think twice about his motives.

But his eyes could rattle the mind. Those baby-blues pulled you in with some kind of force that just took over. The gleam in his eyes just made you want to trust him, although something you should never do was trust Brock. Behind the beauty was a monster, a real mixer. A manipulative, cunning kid with a hidden agenda. His eyes alone could tell the mischief that was in store, only, most people realized this about him when it was too late.

Brock was the leader of the little gang. They all flocked to him, following him around like a herd of love sick puppies. He could treat them like dirt and they would still come back to him. Brock got into their minds and made them do things for him and made it seem like it was all for a good reason. Brock was clever. You'd need to be clever to be in the field of work he was in.

Drugs. He could get almost anything. All you had to do was ask, all he asked for was the money to buy it and for your word. Your word was everything in the deal. A person's word created a bond. It sealed the deal. It's how he kept them coming back, binding themselves to his every wish and every want. Brock could get anything out of them. And he was smart about it, often twisting words around making it seem like things were the other persons idea. Brock was no idiot.

His friends, or should I say cronies, were another story. They weren't anywhere near Brock's level. They weren't as intelligent as he was, but each of them had a purpose.

If there was a second in command it would have been Ben. Ben and Brock came across as best friends, but Brock was just using Ben, only Ben couldn't see that for himself. He treated Ben better then the rest of them though. Maybe Brock did see Ben as the closest thing he had to a friend, its hard to tell what Brock was thinking most of the time.

Ben was a nice kid. No matter what you can say about Ben, he was a damn nice kid. Just a year younger that Brock, Ben was easily just as beautiful. His dark brown hair was kept short, but still long enough to spike it. He normally wore nice hooded sweaters and jeans with sandals. He looked like a model out of a magazine.

If any of them had a chance at a future it was Ben. He had very good grades, any university would have taken. He was school smart, but not so people smart otherwise he would have seen how much of a hold Brock kept on him. But either way, Ben was a good guy. He really was. He had a warming smile that just made you feel good and he never treated the rest of the group like shit like Brock did.

Brock's mission in finding friends was to benefit himself mainly. Ben was there to back up Brock when things got tough. Ben's father was a policeman. Being friends with Ben gave Brock a cover story. If he ever got into trouble Ben would be able to tell his father that Brock had actually been with him. And it worked. Ben had gotten Brock out of some pretty sticky situations before, just by providing an alibi.

That's all Ben really was to Brock. A cover. He couldn't give two shits about what really happened to the people in his little group.

Then there were the half-brothers, John and Max. Just by looking at them, you could tell that there was no way for them to be related by blood. The reason Max's mother married John's dad was actually because of Brock, in a way.

John and Max had become friends through Brock; both of them came to Brock for pot, that's how they met him. One night, Max was at John house when Max's mom came to pick him up. She started talking to John's dad and then from there they fell in love.

John had short brown hair that was shaved closely to his head. His usual outfit consisted of light jeans and a white tee-shirt. John was loud. That is one thing you could say about John, he was loud. He always spoke loudly, as though he was bragging about something he had done, like he wanted you to know what was going on in his life so he could get credit for it. John loved the attention he got from people.

Max on the other hand was quiet. While John would be the center of attention, Max would be to the side, watching the scene. He was shorter then John and didn't have a personality even similar to that of his half-brother. No one really knew how they had come to be such good friends. Maybe they become friends out of the "opposite attract" rule. Max was only five foot eight while John was five eleven. Max had reddish dark brown Mohawk and wore cargo paints with an opened button up shirt with a band shirt underneath.

Brock's main interest in the half-brothers was drugs. Max's mother owned a pharmacy and John's father was a doctor. Both were Brock's ticket to certain drugs. Brock, within time, was able to have John and Max bring him whatever he needed, and Brock would sell it to his other "clients", giving both boys a share of his profit, though not even a good share at that. What the sixteen year olds didn't know didn't hurt them, right?

Then there was Taylor. Taylor was Brock's girlfriend, so you can just assume how she must have been, after all, what kind of girl would want to be with a guy like Brock?

Like her boyfriend, she carried the normal good looks one might see at a first glance. She was five foot five and thin. Her hair was dyed black and went just below her shoulders. Her hazel eyes, like her boyfriends, told the real tale about who she was. She was a heroin addict, that's why she was with Brock. She wanted her drugs. What Brock wanted out of her was plain and simple; sex. And remember, Brock always gets what he wants. Everyone knew though, within time the drugs would weather Taylor. Her tan face would become pale and look older. Then Brock wouldn't need her anymore. He move on to the next girl he could find without a second glance at Taylor.

The other girl in the group was Candy. Words couldn't describe the way Candy acted. She was poison. Candy had a harsh voice and a harsh vocabulary to go along with it. Normally when you her candy you think of sweet. The only thing sweet about Candy was her name, and maybe the pink hair. Candy was a trashy. She wore mini skirts and midriff bearing tops that revealed a belly button ring. She also had many tattoos. They were all over her arms and her legs.

What Brock got out of her, no one was really sure. All they knew is that Candy wanted ecstasy, and ecstasy is what Candy would get. One could assume though, what Brock was doing with Taylor, he was probably doing with Candy on the side.

Harry wasn't sure how he had become friends with them. All he knew was that one day he was at the park talking to Brock and the next he was making his own deals with the con man.

As of right now, all Harry wanted out of Brock was cigarettes. And Brock would get them for him; all he asked for was a simple exchange.

Vicodin. A pain reliever. That's what Brock wanted from Harry. They were almost impossible to get unless they were prescribed. That's were Harry came into the deal. Uncle Vernon had been prescribed Vicodin because of his back. Once in a while Harry's uncle would need one for his back, but the rest of the time, the bottle just sat in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Now one ever noticed that Harry had been taking them. Good thing it was a large bottle.

Harry would bring the pills to Brock and in exchange Brock would bring him some cigarettes. It seemed a fair deal to Harry.

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The usual gang was at the rock sight. They had a fire going and music playing. Brock and Taylor were sitting on a rock, furiously snogging. Candy was flirting with John who couldn't stop laughing. He must have been on something. Max was sitting against a tree talking to Ben.

As Harry walked into the meeting spot Max looked up and acknowledged Harry with a nod. Harry nodded back.

Ben looked up and smiled, "Hey."

"Hey." Harry replied back, "What's up?"

"Not much, you?" Ben replied

Harry shrugged, "Can't complain."

Harry was the youngest member of the group and the shortest. If you compared Harry to Brock it would be almost funny. Harry was short and skinny while Brock was tall and muscular. Brock could have easily killed Harry if he had tried hard enough.

"So, whatcha got today?" Brock asked as Harry walked over to him, his eyes never leaving Harry.

"Here. I got you ten."

"Nice job, Potter." Brock said as he took the pills from Harry's hand and looked over them quickly. He then smiled and said, "This stuff is crazy if you mix it with alcohol. Good work. Oh, and these are for you."

Brock handed Harry the fresh pack of cigarettes. Harry put the pack in his pocket and turned to walk away.

"Where are you going exactly?" Taylor asked as she snuggled closer to Brock who didn't seem interested in her what so ever.

"Home." Harry replied. Brock narrowed his eyes. The rest of the group looked interested. No one normally left that quickly.

"It's not even dark yet." Candy said as she held out a beer to Harry, "Stay awhile longer and have a drink."

"Cant." Harry said, "I've got to get home before my aunt and uncle get back from dinner."

"That sucks, you're missing the fun." John said, spitting while he spoke.

"Potter." Brock said and Harry turned back towards him, "I need double next time."

"Are you joking?" Harry asked, "That's a lot to take in one go."

"No. Double." Brock repeated and then stared at Harry viciously, "You bring me double next time."

Harry just looked back at him for a moment as though he was trying to resist, then dropped his eyes and nodding, "Right, double. See you later."

Harry walked back onto the path and headed back out of the park. The sun had not quite set yet. Truthfully speaking, Harry didn't actually have to go home right away. His aunt, uncle and cousin were spending the night at some friends they were visiting. Harry just wasn't really in the mood to hang around the gang today. He had a fair bit on his mind.

As he walked out of the park he noticed a man sitting on the stone wall fence. It was Sirius. Harry walked over to him, not really knowing why he was doing so. Sirius smiled as Harry approached. It was time to start getting to know him.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked

"I came for a walk. I was visiting a friend near by." Sirius replied

"Oh." Harry said

"Doing anything right now?" Sirius asked

"I was going home." Harry said

"I was just about to go into town and get a cup of coffee. Want to come?"

Harry stared at Sirius for a minute. He felt like he shouldn't go with this guy. He didn't even know him; all he knew was that this guy claimed to be his godfather. For all he knew, this guy could be some crazy murder that was waiting to kill Harry when he let his guard down. Finally Harry asked, "Are you paying?"

Sirius let out a bark like laugh, "Sure."

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AN: Okay that was chapter 2. Hope you liked it. I'm actually going to have Harry and Sirius interact more in the next chapter. I just wanted to introduce the gang and all. Please read and review.


	3. Chats in the Café

Chapter three: Chats in the Café

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Harry had never been much of a coffee drinker. Sirius had found that rather amusing considering Harry was already smoking, he figured Harry would have been the type who drank coffee on a regular basis, acting much older than he was. Sirius suppressed a laugh when Harry ordered a hot chocolate. Sirius got a cappuccino; he often enjoyed them in the evening.

Inside the shop was busy so Harry and Sirius sat outside the shop at one of its many tables. The gun-metal colored chairs matched the inside of the café nicely. They sat in silence for a while, not sure what to say to one another.

Remus had suggested that Sirius make light conversation. Get to know the boy. It would make everything much easier in the long run. It would take time and even though Sirius wasn't always patient, he gave Remus' approach a try.

"So, you don't like coffee?" Sirius asked

Harry shrugged, "Not really, it's too bitter."

"Maybe you just haven't had the right type of coffee."

"Coffee is bad for you, it stains your teeth." Harry said seriously

Sirius smiled, revealing his unstained, pearly whites, "So does smoking."

"Touché." Harry said, taking a sip of his hot chocolate.

"Why do you smoke?" Sirius asked curiously

"Why do you drink coffee?" Harry asked back. Sirius could tell that this was going to be a little more of a challenge then he had expected.

Sirius sighed and said, "I like coffee. Coffee might not be great for you, but it won't kill you like those cigarettes will."

"I like smoking, and besides, we all die someday anyway." Harry said

Sirius just nodded, "I guess that's one way to look at it."

"I suppose." Harry aid before the awkward silence fell on them again. By now the sun had finally set and stars were visible in the sky. The lights from the café supplied Harry and Sirius with ample light. Harry watched as a couples walked in and out of the store with various beverages.

"Yesterday, you said that you were here to get me." Harry brought up out of no where.

Sirius nodded, "That's what I said."

"What does that mean exactly?" Harry asked, "I mean, I don't even know you and then you just come out of no where and ask me to live with you. What the hell is this all about?"

Sirius wasn't really sure how to explain. Harry was his godson, of course he wanted Harry to live with him, but convincing the boy was going to be harder then just saying that.

"What do you know about your parents, Harry?"

"Bits and pieces of stories. Not that much. Why?"

"Did you know that your dad was my best friend when we went to Hogwarts?"

"No." Harry replied

Sirius smiled, "We were friends. Best friends. When your parents got married, I was the best man at the wedding."

Harry thought of the old picture album that had been given to him back in first year. There was a picture in it of James and Lily's wedding. Harry had never given the picture a second thought before. There was another man in the picture too. It had only registered to Harry at just that moment that the man was Sirius. Sirius looked much older now then he did in the picture.

Sirius continued, "When you were born James and Lily made me your godfather. Your father trusted me more than anyone in the world and he knew that if anything ever happened to him and Lily they wanted me to raise you."

"Then where the hell have you been all this time, cause incase you having realized I live with the Dursleys." Harry replied indignantly

"There were some complications with that." Sirius said and Harry just looked at him with a face that read, 'What the fuck are you talking about you psycho?'

"Harry, what do you know about your parents going into hiding from Voldemort?"

"Just that he found out where they were and tried to kill me."

Sirius took a deep breath, as though dreading what he was about to tell Harry, "Harry, have you ever heard of the Fidelius Charm?"

"No." Harry shook his head

"I didn't think so." Sirius said and the continued, "It's a spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single person. The information is hidden inside the person, or Secret-Keeper, and the secret is impossible to find out unless the Secret-Keeper chooses to tell the secret. Do you understand?"

"I think so." Harry said

Sirius nodded, "When James and Lily found out that Voldemort was looking for them they went into hiding under the Fidelius. The only person who could tell the secret to where James and Lily were hiding would be the Secret-Keeper. Your parents wanted someone they could trust to be their Secret-Keeper, someone they knew would keep the secret safe."

"They wanted you." Harry confirmed

"They did. Only, I told them that I wouldn't do it. It would have been too obvious. Voldemort would have known it was me. But we told everyone that I was their Secret-Keeper anyway, just to throw them off. We thought it was a brilliant idea. Only we were wrong."

"Who was their Secret-Keeper if it wasn't you?" Harry asked

"Another friend of ours, Peter Pettigrew, he went to school with us. No one would think that they'd ever make him Secret-Keeper. He wasn't the toughest thing, so it was the perfect trick. Everyone would think it was me, when it was really Peter. Are you still with me?"

"Yeah." Harry replied, "So what happened? Voldemort still found them."

Sirius sighed, "He did. We thought Pettigrew was our friend. He was a spy for Voldemort. We never knew. We thought that there might have been a spy in the group, but we never thought it was Peter. Peter told Voldemort where your parents were hiding."

"He betrayed them." Harry said and Sirius nodded sadly.

Sirius took a breath and continued, "The night Voldemort attack your parents I was supposed to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe. When I got to his house, he wasn't there. I didn't feel right about him not being home so I went to your parent's place to check on them." Sirius paused for a moment and looked away from Harry and turned his gaze to a young couple sitting at a nearby table, "Only, when I got there, Voldemort had beaten me to the place."

Sirius' voice was very quiet now, barely above a whisper, "I'll never forget what the house looked like, I walked in and James was-" Sirius stopped, rubbed his forehead and then continued, turning back towards Harry, "I found you in your room. You weren't hurt too bad, besides the scar. You where crying so I picked you up and cleaned you off a bit; got you to calm down. That's when Hagrid showed up. I wanted to take you with me, I really did, but Hagrid had orders. He was supposed to bring you to Dumbledore, so I gave you to Hagrid and I went after Peter myself."

"You knew that he had told Voldemort about their hiding place." Harry said

"Yeah, "Sirius said quietly, "I eventually caught up with Peter. I was going to kill him myself. I cornered him in an alley, it was full of muggles. He started shouting at me how I killed James and Lily and how I was their Secret-Keeper, which was complete bullshit. Then before I could kill him he blew up the street. Killed thirteen muggles. Then he escaped, completely unnoticed."

"He set you up so it looked like you killed my parents." Harry said and Sirius nodded. Then Harry asked, "How did he escape?"

"Do you know what an animagus is?" Sirius asked and smiled a bit from the puzzled look on his godsons face. "An animagus is a person who can transform into an animal. Normally, when a person becomes and animagus they are supposed to register themselves at the ministry of magic. Peter wasn't registered, he was an illegal animagus."

"Why wasn't he registered?" Harry questioned

"None of us were." Sirius said, "Your father, Peter and myself all became animagus when we were underage so we never registered, we kept that bit of information to ourselves."

"What made you all decide to become animagus'? What type of animal was my dad?"

"Your father was a stag, I was a dog and Pettigrew was a rat. The reason we became animagus' is-well, it's not really important right now. But the point is that Pettigrew was an animagus. After he destroyed the street he transformed into a rat and ran down the gutter. He even cut his own finger off before he transform so everyone thought he was dead and that I killed him."

"So everyone thought that everything was your fault when it really wasn't."

"Yes. I was arrested the next day for murder, although, I never actually killed anyone. It couldn't have worked out better for Peter. Not even Dumbledore believed me when I told him I was innocent because he, like everyone else, he still thought I was Secret-Keeper. I was sent to Azkaban after that."

"Where?"

Sirius' face grew darker then Harry had seen it before, "It's a jail. It's in the middle of no where on this island. Highly guarded. It's a dark place, Harry. People lose their minds there. The guards are creatures called dementors. They are these cloaked figures. They suck the happiness right out of you, leaving you completely void of any emotions."

"How come you're not crazy if they are as bad as you say?" Harry asked suspiciously

"Since I was an animagus I was able to transform and keep my mind. The mind of an animal is less complex then a human so they aren't affected by dementors. They are blind, dementors. They couldn't tell I was a dog but they could sense that I wasn't so human. They assumed that I was losing my mind like everyone else so they just left me alone."

"How did you get out of jail if everyone thought you were a murderer?" Harry inquired

"Pettigrew was exposed. He had been hiding as a rat with some wizarding family. Apparently the story was, the twin sons of the family were fighting and a wand was thrown and hit their pet rat. The rat turned back into Pettigrew right in the middle of their living room. Naturally the mother of the family was shocked at the sight and stunned the mysterious man and called the ministry of magic's Auror department. They came over and identified the man as Peter Pettigrew. From there they realized that it was a huge mistake and twenty-four hours later, I was out of Azkaban. That was two weeks ago. You obviously haven't been reading the _Daily Prophet_; it was all over the wizard news."

"So all this time, you've been in jail." Harry said to no one in particular

Sirius nodded and a strange look appeared on Harry's face that made Sirius laugh.

"What?" Harry asked

"You still don't fully believe my story. I think that's kind of funny, that's all."

"Well, it's a lot to take in." Harry defended

"You're right." Sirius said and looked up towards the sky, "It's getting late; you should probably be heading back home anyway."

Harry gave him a confused look, "So that's it then?"

"What do you mean?" Sirius questioned

"I don't know. You said that you're my rightful guardian so why aren't you making me come and live with you?"

"I really would like you to come live with me, don't get me wrong. But if you don't want to come live with me then I'm not going to make you do something you don't want to do. That wouldn't be any good." Sirius said as he stood up

What Sirius was really thinking was 'Because bloody Remus told me that it should be your decision to come live with me. You have two weeks to decide before I drag your sorry ass home with me whether you like it or not.'

Harry just nodded and stood up also. For a second, Sirius looked like he was about to reach over and pull Harry into a hug, but he resisted temptation. Instead he extended his hand and Harry took it.

"I guess I'll be seeing you then." Sirius said

"What do I do if I want to reach you?" Harry asked, dropping his hand.

This was good for Sirius. Harry seemed interested in the idea of moving in with Sirius. "I'll be around for the next few days. I'm sure we'll see each other at the park or in town sometime soon."

"Right." Harry said as he turned away, "I'll see you then."

"Bye, Harry."

Sirius watched Harry walk away from the café. He waited till Harry was out of sight before he actually headed home for himself.

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It was only a little after nine when Harry reached his aunt and uncle's house. Something wasn't right. The lights in the house where on and the car was in the drive way. This wasn't good. The Dursley's didn't stay at their friends after all, they were home early.

"Shit." Harry said as he opened the front door to the house and stepped inside. Dudley gave Harry an evil smirk as he walked into the kitchen. Harry just stood where he was, raising an eyebrow.

"Where have you been boy?" Uncle Vernon asked from the top of the stairs.

"I was-er-talking a walk." Harry replied

"None of your chores are done." Uncle Vernon said as he walked down the stairs, "Why aren't your chores done?"

Harry looked nervously at his uncle as he descended the stair case. Vernon was twisting a belt in his hands and he was glaring at Harry viciously. Harry swallowed hard and sighed.

"Close the door." His uncle instructed. Harry looked at the door, and for a second he wanted to run, but he realized he had no where to go. Harry slowly closed the door, watching the stars disappear as the door clicked shut.

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AN: That was chapter Three. Hope you all liked it. A bit sad at the end. So Harry and Sirius finally talked and now we know why Sirius isn't in jail. Poor Harry, his life is sad.

I hope you all enjoyed that chapter. Please read and review.

Just as a side note, When Sirius and Harry are talking about stained teeth, Sirius' teeth should probably be in horrible condition because of Azkaban, however, due to the magic of my writing, he used magic toothpaste that corrected all his dental problems. Isn't magic fun! Lol.

And just incase certain things are confusing time wise:

Hogwarts ended for Harry in mid/end of June right, so Sirius is freed around, let's say June 27th.

So now it's probably around July 10th.

A week before Harry's birthday is when the Weasleys leave for Egypt and Hermione is already on vacation in France.

Just so timing doesn't get too confusing. Please read and review.


	4. Decisions

Chapter four: Decisions

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Sounds of laughter filled Harry's ears as he sat quietly on a large rock on the opposite side of the pond, watching the families walking around and feeding the ducks. Harry was watching a family of four near the edge of the pond.

There was a mother, father, daughter and a son. The mother was down at the little boy's level and they were throwing pieces of bread into the water for the birds. The little girl was on her father's shoulders, watching the ducks swimming around and pointing to one every so often. Harry smiled sadly at the family.

Since Harry was far away from the main area of the pond, he took out a cigarette and his lighter. Harry sighed as the smoked escaped from his mouth and nose. He shifted uncomfortably on the rock and stretched his back very slowly; it had been a rough night.

"Hey." A voice from behind Harry said about ten minutes later.

Harry, not looking up at the person replied, "Hey."

It was Ben, Harry could tell by the voice. Ben had a very soothing, deep voice. His voice almost made you feel relaxed and calm, like you didn't have a care in the world. Harry moved over a little to make room for Ben to sit down, still keeping his gaze at the family. As Ben settled down on the right side of Harry he said, "Thanks."

"No problem." Harry said and offered Ben a cigarette.

"No thanks." Ben said, "I've started running again so smoking won't really help improve my timing, it will just slow me down, thanks anyway though."

"Suit yourself." Harry said as he pulled out another one for himself and then put the pack of cigarettes back in his pocket.

"So," Ben asked, "What are you doing out here so early? It's only ten in the morning."

Harry just shrugged, "Don't know, what about you?"

"I was going for a run." Ben replied and Harry just nodded. Ben asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Harry replied. Ben just nodded and the two sat quietly for a little while, watching the people around the pond.

"I think I was afraid of ducks when I was little." Harry said out of no where

"What?" Ben asked with a smile

Harry shrugged and murmured, "Just a memory I think, or maybe it was a dream, I'm not really sure. Some reason, I just remember being afraid of the ducks when I was little."

"Well you aren't anymore so I guess that is the important thing." Ben said, not really sure how to reply to shut a strange outburst.

Ben looked at Harry strangely and asked, "You sure you're alright? You seem a bit off today."

Harry turned his head and looked at Ben. Ben grimaced as he saw a large bruise on the left side of Harry's face, along his jaw line. Harry just nodded and said, "I'm fine."

"Where did you get that?" Ben asked, pointing to the mark

Harry just shrugged and looked back across the pond. The family he was watching had moved away from the pond and had settled themselves on the grass.

Ben asked, "Was it your uncle again?"

Harry didn't answer. He never actually answered when Ben would ask him this question, and Ben had asked him many times before. Ben just sort of figured everything out for himself after a while. It wasn't uncommon for Harry to show up places with strange bruises and false stories on how he had gotten them.

Ben looked down to the ground and picked up a small rock. He threw it into the water and watched it ripple out in the pond, "Harry, if things at home aren't great I could always talk to my dad for you. He could help get you out of there if you want."

"It's alright. I don't need help." Harry said

"He's helped other kids before, you know, its his job. He could find you another family. I mean, you'd only have to be with them a short time since you go away to that prep school most of the year. It would be safe than your uncle's house."

Harry had told the gang that he went to a prep school most of the year when they asked him about why they had only seen him around the area unless it was summer.

"I'm fine, really, I am." Harry reassured

"I mean, I know you don't have another relative you can really go with, so I just though that, well, you know, if you ever need anything, you don't have to be afraid to ask."

"I know." Harry said, "Thanks, but I'm really alright. It doesn't happen very often."

Ben just nodded and silence fell between them for a moment. Harry looked up at Ben and said, "I have a godfather."

"You do?" Ben asked with a raised eyebrow, "I didn't know that."

"He wants me to move in with him." Harry said, not really knowing why he was telling all of this to Ben. Maybe it was because he trusted Ben or even looked up to him. Harry wasn't really sure.

"Are you going to?"

"I don't know. I only met him a few days ago. I don't know him that well. He was my dad's best friend, apparently. They went to school together when they were younger." Harry said

"What is he like? Is he nice?"

"So far. He bought be hot chocolate the other day and we talked for a bit." Harry said and then asked, "What would you do?"

Ben shrugged, "Truthfully I don't know what _I_ would do. But you know what I think you _should_ do? I think you should test him out. Maybe spend a weekend with him or something. Get to know him a little better. See if it works out for you."

"That's always an option. I'm sure he'd agree to it and everything." Harry agreed

"I think anyone is better then your uncle and that you really have nothing to lose by getting to know him better. It certainly gives you more living options."

"True."

Ben sighed, "I would really think about it, Harry. I should probably get back to running; I'm not going to get any faster by just sitting around all day."

Ben stood up and it had just occurred to Harry that Ben was dressed in track pants and running shoes. "See you later, Harry."

Ben walked away and Harry called out, "Hey, Ben?"

Ben turned around, "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

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"Hey kiddo, how'd you get that beauty?" Sirius asked as Harry came into view and he saw the mark on Harry's face.

"Oh," Harry smirked, "I slipped on the kitchen floor and hit my face into the counter. It hurt like a bitch."

"I can imagine."

'Good.' Harry thought, 'He bought it.'

Harry, by this time, had been pretty good and making up lies on how he acquired strange bruises. Normally everyone believed his stories. The key was looking them in they eye when you told them, that way they knew that he wasn't lying. The only on who actually saw past his charade was Ben.

"So, what are your plans for today?" Sirius asked as he looked around the park.

"I have to meet some friends later tonight, but I'm not doing anything right now." Harry responded

"Brilliant, do you feel like doing something then?"

"Okay." Harry said, "What do you have in mind?"

"Well," Sirius began, "We could go into town and walk around for a bit or-"

"Do you live near here?" Harry cut Sirius off, "I mean, I've seen you here a lot for the past few days so are you here because of me or do you actually live close by?"

Sirius smiled, "I don't live too far from here, but I guess I'm really not that close. I've been staying nearby for the week just so I could see you. I've to go back home at the end of the week. It's part of the deal."

"What deal?"

"The deal I made with Dumbledore about you possibly living with me?"

Harry gave Sirius this look of utter confusion. Sirius sighed, "Do you know the main reason you live with your aunt and uncle?"

Harry shook his head. Sirius said, "I didn't think so. Since your aunt shares the same blood as your mother, the blood of your mother protects you. It keeps you safe. You're safest with you aunt because she has your mother's blood as well. Does that make any sense to you?"

"Sort of." Harry said

"When your parents died, your mother sacrificed herself for you. She wanted to protect you. It's very, very old magic, Harry. By doing so, she created this sort of bond to you, a bond that Voldemort can't touch. Since your aunt and your mother are from the same blood line, your aunt's blood holds a protection to you as well. That's why you are safe with the Dursleys, Voldemort can't touch you their because of the blood bond. Get it?"

"Yeah." Harry said, "But if I'm so safe with them, how would I be able to live with you? We aren't related by blood. You wouldn't have that level of protection, right? Why would Dumbledore ever consider me living with you?"

Sirius snorted, "Oh, trust me, he is dead against it. Technically, since I am your legal guardian, I have every right to make you come and live with me right now and Dumbledore wouldn't be able to do anything about it."

"So why don't you just make me come with you?" Harry questioned

"Well, it was part of the deal." Sirius said, "I didn't want to force you to come live with me because you didn't even know me and I'm sure the whole idea would have freaked you out. I also have to consider your safety. And for you to be safe with me Dumbledore would need to place a special protective ward on my house. So Dumbledore and I made a deal that I would have about a week or so to get to know you and if you felt comfortable with me then you could move in with me."

Harry thought about this for a moment, "What if I still didn't feel comfortable with you by the end of the week?"

"Then you wouldn't live with me. I'd still be able to see you if I wanted to, but you wouldn't live with me. Dumbledore really wants to keep your living situation as is." Sirius said sadly

Harry nodded as he and Sirius started walking around the park in silence. Every so often Sirius would glance at Harry when he thought that Harry wasn't looking. Harry saw that Sirius was going to put a hand on Harry's shoulder at one point, but he thought against it and pretended to scratch his head instead.

As they were walking past the playground area of the park, Harry saw the little girl and boy from the pond. Their father was pushing them on the swings. They were smiling and laughing, it made Harry feel a little sad that he'd never gotten to share an experience like that with his parents.

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know anything about ducks?"

"Ducks?" Sirius though out loud and made a strange face, as though he was thinking really hard.

Sirius face then lit up with a huge smiled, "I don't know much about ducks Harry, but, I can't believe I even remember this, when you were little, your parents and I took you to this little park that had a pond. There were ducks in it and James kept trying to get you to pet one of the baby ducks, but you wouldn't go near it. You were afraid of it, you were only a year old or so, but it was so funny. The baby duck took one step near you and you screamed right in James' ear, it was great. Lily was afraid that you were going to have a duck phobia because of it. She kept yelling at me because it was my idea to take you there in the first place. She kept going on about how I had traumatized you for life."

Harry gave a smile at the story. Sirius asked, "Why an interest in ducks anyway?"

Harry shrugged, "Just wondering really."

"Oh."

"So you knew me well when I was little."

"I did." Sirius replied, "I'd watch you when James and Lily would go out for dinner sometimes. I'd see you at least once a week. I remember when you started talking. Your first word was daddy; only, you said it to the wrong person. I thought James was going to kill me. He spent the entire week trying to get you to call him daddy."

"I assume that I eventually did." Harry comment

"Yeah," Sirius smirked, "Your father actually bribed you at one point with cookies. He was so frustrated about you not calling him daddy. I think you might have even pointed to him one time and said 'man'. Your mom thought that was really funny. He even thought that you were doing it on purpose and that you hated him. He was literally jumping for joy when you called him daddy."

"That's the first time I ever heard storied about when I was a baby." Harry said

"I can imagine that. Your mom and your aunt weren't ever really close so I don't think your aunt ever saw you after you were born. I think the only time I ever met your aunt was at your mom's wedding. She wasn't even married to your uncle at that point."

"I'm surprised she even went." Harry admitted, "She hates magic. They all do."

Sirius nodded, "I actually think your grandparents forced her to go. She and Lily never really got along once Lily started Hogwarts. My guess is that she was probably jealous of Lily. Your grandparents were really proud of your mom. They thought that it was really cool to have a witch in the family."

"They sounded like nice people." Harry said

"Oh they were. I always liked your mom's parents, they were always really nice. Harry, you would have loved your dad's parents. They died before you were born, but you would have loved them. Frank told the best stories. Your father got his sense of humor from Frank. Your grandmother was the best cook in the entire world in my opinion. Ella always had a warm smile; she always made you feel welcome in her home."

"You knew them well, then?" Harry asked

"I lived with you dad for a while, so yeah, I knew them well. I was sort of like their second son. After I graduated Hogwarts I got my own apartment, but I always was invited to your grandparents whenever I wanted."

"Why did you live with my dad? Did you get kicked out of your house or something?"

"Not exactly. My parents were total bastards. I come from a long line of pure-blooded wizards. I'm sure you've met a good amount of them at Hogwarts. They think that they are better then most just because of their family name. My parents were pure-blooded maniacs and after a while I just couldn't deal with them so I left home when I was sixteen. Your grandparent let me stay with them. They didn't mind at all, they loved having me there."

"You really hated your family enough to want to leave forever?"

"Yeah."

"Why, did they beat you or something?"

The question startled Sirius a little, he hadn't expected it. "No, they weren't very physical like that, I mean, they'd slap me once in a while I guess, I can't really remember. Verbal abuse was more common with them. They weren't the nicest folks. James gave me credit for leaving; he thought it was a brave thing to do. They disowned me after that, not that I really cared. I was just glad that I had a friend like James who helped me out of a crappy situation."

Harry just nodded. So Sirius had not had the best home life either. They had something in common beside James and Lily. They walked around for a little while longer before Harry spoke again, "Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you _really_ want me to live with you?"

"More than anything." Sirius said truthfully

"What if I did move in with you and things didn't work out?"

Sirius looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. What if we got on each other's nerves? Then what? We'd be stuck with each other and that would fucking suck."

Sirius thought about this for a moment before replying, "Well, what we could do is, you could come stay with me for the weekend. Sort of test things out. See how the situation will work. If you want to go back your aunt and uncle, that's fine. I mean, I'm sure you'd miss them a lot if you were gone, so moving in with me would be something you'd need to really think about. I'm sure they'd miss you terribly too."

Harry snorted at that last comment. Sirius had no idea about what the Dursley's thought about him. Harry said, "I think we should give things a try. I could be good for me, you know, give me a change of scenery or something."

"I think it's a great idea. I mean, we'd have to speak to your aunt and uncle about it first and make sure it would be okay with them."

"Trust me; they'd be glad to get rid of me."

Sirius gave Harry a questioning look and Harry quickly said, "I mean it would give them one less person to worry about. Having two teenagers in the house can be kind of demanding."

Sirius just raised and eyebrow, "Right. Well, we can talk to them tomorrow. I'm sure they'll want to meet me. I mean, you've told them about me, haven't you?"

"Yeah, of course I have." Harry lied

"Okay then, that's settled. I'll come and talk to them tomorrow."

"Right, tomorrow."

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When Harry reached the little rock sight something was different. Everyone seemed very tense. Brock and Ben kept sending each other looks. The entire group seemed like they had just had an argument about something.

Candy and Taylor were glaring at each other. Candy was sitting next to Brock, so whatever they were fighting about; Taylor obviously hadn't agreed with Brock and thus was pushed to the side to make way for a more obedient girl.

Max and John seemed a bit off as well. Max was sitting next to Taylor and John was against a tree by himself.

"Hey Potter." Brock greeted, "Where have you been? You're late."

"Yeah, sorry bout that. I fell asleep." Harry lied. Ben was looking at Harry nervously and Harry just sent him a confused look back.

"Harry," Brock said with a grin. Harry was startled, Brock never called him by his first name before, "how would you like to do me a small favor?"

"How small?" Harry asked suspicious.

"Brock don't-" Ben began but Brock cut him off

"Shut the fuck up, Ben." Ben went quiet and looked towards the floor with a furious look on his face. Taylor looked between the two guys and for the first time, Harry had thought that he saw fear in her eyes.

Brock turned back to Harry and smiled, "What are you doing this weekend, Harry?"

Harry looked at Ben who shook his head behind Brock's back. Harry said, "I'm staying with my godfather for the weekend. I'm not going to be here."

Ben let out a sigh of relief and Brock narrowed his eyes at Harry, "What time are you expected back?"

"After ten at night." Harry lied, he wasn't really sure when he'd be home

Brock clapped his hands, "This works out great, I don't need you till midnight."

Ben, Max and Taylor all looked worried again. Candy and Brock smiled and John just looked back and fourth between the group.

"So Harry? Can you do me a favor?" Brock asked

"What's in it for me?" Harry asked and Brock's smiled dropped. Harry had realized he asked the wrong question. Brock got a strange look on his face, as though he was trying to decide whether he wanted to kill Harry or just laugh the comment off.

When he had finally come to a conclusion he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag and threw it to Harry, "That's what you get. And maybe I'll throw in a few bucks your way too."

Harry looked at the contents of the little bag. It was pot. Harry looked confused. Brock never gave away free pot and he never offered money as well. Whatever he wanted Harry to do must have been big and it must have been bringing in a lot of money for Brock.

The group looked at Harry with intense interest, waiting for his reply. Ben's face was worried but at the same time he was furious. He looked as though he wanted to beat the crap out of Brock.

Harry looked at Ben and saw the look on his face. He knew that Ben wasn't happy, but at the same time, he couldn't avoid Brock's eyes, talking him into this deal without a single word. After a moment Harry finally spoke, "What do you want me to do?"

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AN: another chapter completed. Hope you all liked it. So the gang is starting to get interesting and Harry has agreed to go spend some time with Sirius. Remember, things might start to get better, but before they do, they normally get a little worse. Please read and review.

I'm just curious, if you were to make something happen in the story from after this point what would it be. I'm basically writing this on impulse but I still have a good idea of where I am going, but I am always open to suggestions. Thanks.

Just something to keep in mind: When I think of Sirius I think of a person who acts on impulse. Sirius is the type of person who would over react to situations in my opinion. So far he has been really laid back ands he's just sort of taking everything in, but that doesn't seem much like Sirius does it? I smell a breaking point somewhere along the line…


	5. The Weekend Begins

Chapter Five: The Weekend Begins

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On Thursday, Sirius came to the Dursleys around noon to talk to the Dursleys about Harry coming to spend the weekend with him. To say the least, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were not pleased with the unexpected visit. However, they were glad to get rid of Harry for the weekend. A little too happy for Sirius' liking. He kept that bit of information in the back of his mind for a later time.

Sirius was due to pick Harry up around noon on Friday and Harry was going to stay with Sirius until Sunday evening. Naturally, Uncle Vernon had talked to, or rather threatened Harry to keep his mouth shut about the things that went on in the Dursleys household. Vernon had a feeling that Sirius wouldn't have been to keen to hear that his godson was being mistreated. The idea of a full grown wizard blowing him into pieces wasn't exactly a comforting thought, so he made sure that Harry kept quiet.

When Friday had arrived Harry was eager to go. Over the week Sirius had taken Harry out to lunch a few times and they spent a good deal of time together. Harry had found it relatively easy to get along with Sirius.

Harry wasn't sure how he was getting to Sirius' house. When Sirius had came on Thursday he had apparated to Dursley's street and walked to their house from their. You couldn't apparate into their house due to the protection barriers.

Harry got the answer he was looking for ten minutes after noon when a black motorcycle came roaring down the street, came to a stop in front of the house and Sirius got off the bike. He took off his helmet and proceeded to the house.

Uncle Vernon made a face at the sight. He wasn't fond of motorcycles. He thought they were for hooligans and gang members. Harry found the whole situation sort of funny. Sirius didn't look like a hooligan, he looked cool.

Before Harry went to open the door Uncle Vernon growled, "Remember boy, keep your mouth shut."

Harry just nodded and opened the door and let Sirius in. He was wearing a black leather jacket with a pair of faded jeans and a grey tee-shirt. He was also wearing a pair of black sunglasses which he moved to the top of his head as he entered the house.

"Hey." Harry said, "I'll just go get my stuff."

"Okay, I'll wait here." Sirius replied as Harry went up the stairs. Uncle Vernon watched Sirius like a hawk the entire time he was in the house.

"So," Sirius said to Uncle Vernon, "I'll bring Harry back here on Sunday around dinner time I guess."

"And don't be late; we eat at dinner at six-o-clock, I don't want our meal to be interrupted because of lateness." Uncle Vernon said angrily

Sirius used all the strength he had to keep himself from punching Vernon right in the face. No one tells Sirius Black what to do. Sirius just sent a glare Vernon's way that made the large man back away from Sirius a little.

Luckily, Harry had not spent much time getting his stuff together and came downstairs with a small overnight bag, "I'm ready."

"Great." Sirius said as he took the bag from Harry. He turned back to Vernon and said, "See you on Sunday."

Sirius and Harry left the house and Vernon quickly locked the door behind them. Sirius just shook his head, muggles. They walked over to the motorcycle and Harry smiled, "Awesome."

"Isn't she a beauty? I bought her when I was eighteen. It has your normal motorcycle capabilities, but I might have played around with mechanism a bit. I bewitched it, I can fly on it, but I normally on fly it at night. I would draw too much attention to myself if I rode it in the middle of the day."

"This is so cool." Harry asked with a grin, "Can I drive it?"

"Yeah." Sirius said

"Really?" Harry asked excitedly

"Sure, when you turn sixteen, that is." Sirius smiled and handed Harry a helmet. Sirius put his own helmet on and got on the bike.

Harry just watched him for a minute before Sirius said, "Well, are you coming or not?"

Harry nodded and climbed on behind Sirius. Sirius said, "Hold on." And with that, they were off.

From the opposite corner of the block, Brock watched as Sirius and Harry drove away. With a frown on his face he threw the cigarette he was smoking to the ground and turned towards the park.

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Sirius lived about an hour away from the Dursleys. One the way to his house, they passed a small town with many little shops and restaurants. It seemed like a really mellow town. It surprised Harry that Sirius would live in such a quiet town. He pictured Sirius as the city type.

Sirius' house was even move unexpected than the town. It was an old, light stone house with a brown roof. It wasn't a large house, but it seemed big enough for two people from the outside. There were only two other houses on the block. The land around Sirius' house was filled with numerous plants and flowers. There were large trees surrounding the block. It reminded Harry of the type of house you'd seen in a fairy tale book.

Sirius pulled into the driveway and he and Harry got off the motorcycle. Sirius' hair looked perfect when he took the helmet off while Harry's looked like he had lost a fight to a lawnmower.

"We're here." Sirius said as he put his helmet on his bike and picked up Harry's bag.

"I'm a bit surprised. I never really pictured you as the small town sort." Harry said as he looked around

"I'm not really." Sirius confessed, "I waned to live in a quiet area for a while. You know, wait till things calm down in the wizarding world before I make an appearance again. I just wanted some quiet for now, I get recognized to easily in the wizarding world. Once I get back on my feet and things die down I'm going to get a place in London."

Harry followed Sirius into the house and Sirius started to show him around. Automatically, Harry liked it. It wasn't perfect like the Dursleys house, which looked like no one even lived there because it was so clean.

The front door led to a white entry hall with a staircase leading to the second floor. There were two doors in the entry way, one led to a closet and the other to a small bathroom.

To the right of the hall was a living room with comfy looking couches and a fireplace. The living room walls were painted a soft green color. Over one of the arms of the couch was a messily folded blanket. The curtains in the living room matched the walls nicely. The wood floor was a light tan color. There were a few cardboard boxes in that were piled in the corner.

Next to the living room was a large cream colored kitchen. The kitchen had a dining room off of it that contained a small table and four chairs. There was amble counterpace in the kitchen and a large window above the sink let the sunlight into the room. There was a bar-bench eating area with stools on the right side of the kitchen.

The kitchen had a sliding glass door that led to the backyard. Through the glass, Harry could tell that the back yard was enormous and filled with many gardens.

Sirius had explained to Harry that Dumbledore had already placed certain security measures on the house so it was definitely safe.

"Sorry it's a bit messy," Sirius said as they left the living room and went back into the entry hall, "I still have some unpacking and painting to do upstairs. Let me show you were your room is. I'm sure you want to get settled in."

Sirius and Harry climbed the staircase which led to a hall that smelled distinctly of fresh paint. On the right side of the hall was Sirius' room. Next to Sirius' room was a bathroom. On the left side of the hall was Harry's room.

Sirius opened the door and Harry followed him inside the room. Sirius cleared his throat, "I know it's a bit plain, so if you want to change it, I won't mind."

The room was small, but still bigger than the room he had at the Dursleys. The walls were a light blue color that matched the plaid blanket on the double bed that was against the wall. There was a small desk and a dresser in the room as well. Harry really liked the room. It was comfortable.

"This is great." Harry said as he went and sat down on the bed.

Sirius put Harry's bag down on the bed and said, "I'm glad you like it. I've got some painting to do so why don't you unpack and get settled a bit."

"Okay." Harry said

Sirius went to leave the room and said, "If you need anything, just ask."

"I will." Harry said

Sirius smiled and then walked out the door. He came back half a second later and said, "Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm really glad you decided to come and stay for the weekend." Sirius said truthfully and then walked back out of the room.

"Me too." Harry whispered once Sirius was out of sight.

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Once Harry finished packing he left his room and went to find Sirius. It wasn't hard finding him, all Harry had to do was follow the smell of went paint. Harry's nose led him to Sirius bedroom.

The furniture in Sirius' room was draped in white cloth to protect it from any paint spills. Sirius was painting on one of the walls with a cool green colored paint. He was wearing a pair of paint stained jeans and a paint stained shirt.

Harry leaned against the door frame to the room and asked, "Why don't you just use magic to paint the room?"

Sirius turned around and replied, "Where is the fun in that?"

"It's easier." Harry said

"Just because something is easy doesn't mean you should do it." Sirius said and then threw a paintbrush to Harry, "Come on, give me a hand, it's more fun than it seems."

Harry sighed and walked into the room and started to help Sirius paint the walls. It didn't seem like it was much fun.

"Did you paint the entire house?" Harry asked as he dipped the brush in the paint.

Sirius nodded, "I did."

"All by yourself?" Harry questioned

"Yup."

"Why didn't you want to use magic?"

"Don't know, I just thought it would be a good experience really."

"Oh."

"So," Sirius said, "you're all unpacked and everything?"

"Yea." Harry replied

"Very good." Sirius smiled. He moved towards the direction of the other wall but collided with Harry who had moved to get some more paint. Sirius' paintbrush went across Harry's face, covering his glasses with the green paint.

"ARG!" Harry exclaimed which caused Sirius to laugh.

Harry looked angry at first but then his face broke into an evil grin, "You think that's funny?"

Sirius nodded, still laughing. Harry ran his brush across Sirius face, causing Sirius to stop laughing.

"I'll get you for that one." Sirius smiled

He took a step towards Harry and before they knew it they were involved in a furious paint war. There was more paint on them then there was on the walls. Sirius's hair was mostly green and Harry's entire face was covered in the paint.

Once Sirius and Harry had finally stopped attacking each other with paint, Sirius spoke, "You've got some paint on you."

"Thanks. I hadn't noticed." Harry grinned as he tried to clean off his glasses.

"I think I'm going to need more paint."

"I told you that you should have used magic."

Sirius sighed, "Probably. You hungry?"

"Yeah, a bit." Harry replied

"How about we go and clean up a bit and then we can go into town and have some dinner."

"Sounds good to me."

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AN: okay so that was the next chapter, sorry it was so short. I just wanted to create a lighter atmosphere to start their weekend off with. I might have Remus in the next chapter, not sure yet.

I'll try and update soon. Please read and review, no flames.


	6. Saturday

Chapter Six- Saturday

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Sunlight poured into the room from the window facing the backyard. Harry turned over in his bed and slowly opened his eyes. It took him a second to remember that he wasn't in his aunt and uncle's house. The bed was too comfortable to be the one on Privet Drive. He was at Sirius' place.

Harry reached to the night stand and put on his glasses. He glanced at the clock; it was twelve-thirty. Harry couldn't remember sleeping that late, ever. Normally his aunt would wake him up early to help make breakfast.

Harry thought about staying in the warm bed all day long, but then thought against it and pulled the covers off himself and rolled out of bed. He put on a pair of hand-me-down jeans and a baggy red tee-shirt before heading downstairs.

On his way downstairs, Harry noticed a few empty paint cans outside of Sirius' bedroom. 'He must have gotten more paint and finished his room.' Harry thought as he descended the staircase.

Harry walked into the kitchen to get something to eat. Sirius was sitting at the bench with a cup of coffee and was reading the _Daily Prophet_. He looked up as Harry entered and said, "Hey, did you sleep well?"

"Yeah." Harry said and then asked, "Have you been up long?"

Sirius nodded, "Yeah, I normally wake up around eight. I used to be able to sleep way past noon but Azkaban has really warped my sleeping patterns. Are you hungry?"

"Why didn't you wake me up? You didn't have to let me sleep so late." Harry said

"Well, I wasn't sure if you would be mad if I woke you up. If you want I can in the future, but I just figured you could use the sleep. You looked a bit tired last night."

"I normally don't sleep that late, that's all." Harry said, "You don't have to wake me up or anything, I was just surprised."

Sirius just nodded and then asked again, "Want some breakfast? Well, lunch actually."

"Sure." Harry said

Sirius got up and walked to the fridge, "What are you in the mood for?"

Harry was a bit baffled. Normally his aunt and uncle made him do all of the cooking in the house, and they never would let him choose the meals. Harry was just happy with whatever they placed in front of him.

"You don't have to make it or anything, I can do it." Harry said, feeling a little guilty to take advantage of Sirius' hospitality.

"Its not a problem, I was going to make something to eat anyway. Are you in the mood for anything in particular? I can make whatever you want, really. Surprisingly, I'm a halfway decent cook." Sirius replied

"Um, I'll just have whatever your having." Harry responded

"I was going to have a sandwich; does that sound good to you?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Harry said as he sat down at the bench. Sirius began pulling some deli meat out of the fridge and started preparing their lunch.

As he took out a knife from one of the drawers he asked, "So, did you sleep well?"

"I slept great." Harry said

"That's good, I finished painting my room while you were sleeping, I had to run and pick up some new paint, but at least its all finally done."

"Did it come out nice?"

"Yeah, I like it."

"That's good."

As Sirius pulled out a few bread rolls he asked, "Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't smoke while you're here."

"What?"

"Last night, after you thought I went to bed, you went outside for a smoke." Sirius said as he turned around and looked at Harry. Harry looked nervous, not really sure what to expect from Sirius. Normally when his uncle was mad at him, well, it wasn't normally a pretty sight.

Sirius saw the quick change in Harry and continued to speak in a calm voice, "I'm not angry, but while you're with me I'm responsible for you. When you're here I would prefer if you didn't smoke. What you do when you're not here, well, there isn't anything I can do about that. But I would just really appreciate it if you didn't smoke while you're here."

Harry just nodded, glad that Sirius wasn't too mad. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the open pack of cigarettes and put them on the table. He didn't want Sirius to be disappointed with him. This was the first time an adult was ever really nice to Harry and he didn't want to mess it up. Harry avoided Sirius' eyes and said, "Sorry."

"It's alright." Sirius said as he handed Harry a plate and took the cigarettes and placed them in his pocket, "Smoking is a nasty habit. It's hard to quit, trust me, I know, but if you ever do decide to quit I'd be glad to help you."

"You smoked?" Harry asked as Sirius sat down at the bench with his own sandwich.

Sirius nodded, "In did. I started when I was about your age actually. I quit when I was about fourteen. Not on my own, but with some help from my friends."

"What did they do that made you stop?" Harry asked as he took a bite from his sandwich

"Well, they tried a few methods. They tried telling me how bad they were for me, but I didn't really care at the time. Like you said to me a few days back, I was young and we all die someday anyway. They tried hiding them from me, which didn't work out. I normally found them and then we'd all end up fighting about it afterwards because I would be pissed that they took my stuff. They tried tearing them up, but I would just use magic to put them back together. They tried burning them when I wasn't around but I'd smell them and come running into the room. What actually got me to quit was your dad."

"My dad?"

"Yup. After a while James couldn't take it anymore. He hated the smell of smoke. Especially when I would smoke in the dorm. It really ticked him off. He eventually told me that every time I would smoke a cigarette he would smoke one too, that way I would have to deal with the guilt of killing not only myself but my best friend from lung cancer."

"And that really worked?"

"Oh yeah. At first I thought he was kidding so I lit one up and blew the smoke right in his face. He didn't even get mad. He just took the pack and pulled one out and lit up as well. I thought it was a one time thing so I just kept going, but every one I had, James would have one too. I tried being clever about it, you know, smoking when he wasn't around. He got the rest of the guys to watch me so that they could tell him how many I had smoked. Then he'd sit right in front of me later and smoke the same amount that I had right then and there."

"How long did it last before you quit?"

Sirius took a bite of his lunch before replying, "About a month. Your dad was very stubborn about it and so was I. I thought that James wouldn't last a week since he hated it so much. Boy was I wrong. Your poor dad must have gone through so many packs. I had tons with me. I would buy boatloads of them before the school year started. Eventually the whole thing just sort of got to me. I couldn't even look at your dad without feeling a huge pain of guilt. So, I remember one day I went to grab a pack and your dad got up to grab one and I just couldn't do it. I got rid of all of them after that. I never smoked again after that day. Fighting off the nicotine addiction was a pain in the ass but it was well worth it in the end."

"My dad really did that just to get you to stop?" Harry said

"He did. Your father was a very persistent guy. When he had his heart set on something he'd go for it until he got his way." Sirius said and then went back to eating his lunch. Harry watched Sirius for a while before he spoke again.

"Do you think my dad would have been upset with me if he found out that I was smoking?"

"He wouldn't be pleased, I can safely say that."

"Would he have done the thing to me that he did to you to get me to stop?"

Sirius snorted, "He wouldn't have needed to."

"Whys that?"

"Your mother would have slaughtered you if she knew you were smoking. You dad wouldn't have needed to do anything. Your mother would have gotten to you first, trust me, she would have ripped you limb from limb. You wouldn't have ever started smoking in the first place if you had grown up with them. I'd put money on that."

"Do you think I should stop?" Harry asked

"Of course I do, but that really isn't my choice to make, is it? It's your body, not mine. I'm just glad that I stopped. Every cigarette that you smoke takes eight minutes from your life, did you know that?"

Harry nodded, "I've read the statistics."

"Then why do you smoke if you know it's so bad for you?" Sirius asked

"Well, why did you smoke?" Harry asked, counteracting the argument

Sirius thought for a moment, "Well, I don't really know. It was just something I sort of picked up. Maybe it was my way of saying screw you world, I'll do what I want. Sort of a teen rebellion maybe or maybe to look cool. Or maybe it was because I liked the idea of doing something that wasn't good for me, you know, sort of like showing everyone that it's a part of life that I had control of, something someone couldn't take away from me."

Harry sighed, "I don't know why I do it. I guess, because I can, and I can get away with it too."

Sirius nodded, "Well, like I said, it's your body so do what you want with it. I just wish you wouldn't, but I'm not going to make that decision for you. I'm sure that if I told you to stop you'd just do it more to spite me anyhow. I just don't want you smoking while you are staying with me."

"I won't." Harry said and he truly meant it too. Sirius nodded. This was good. Some progress. Harry wouldn't smoke while he was staying with Sirius. That's was one barrier to tear down and a million more to go.

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After lunch, Sirius took Harry into town and they walked around for a while. They went and had some ice-cream and did a little shopping. Sirius bought Harry some new shirts and a new pair of jeans. It made Sirius sick that the bloody Dursleys never bought Harry new clothes and only gave him hand-me-downs from Dudley. At first, Harry was really uncomfortable with Sirius buying him such nice things but Harry was secretly thrilled, he never got new clothes or new anything for that matter.

They got back to the house around five. Harry brought his new things up to the bedroom while Sirius went into the kitchen to get a drink. When Harry came back downstairs he went into the kitchen and sat across from Sirius with his own drink.

"I hope you don't mind, "Sirius said, "I invited a friend of mine over for dinner tonight."

"No, that's fine. So does that mean you want me to go out for a while or stay upstairs or what?"

Sirius gave Harry an extremely puzzled look, "No, I want you to eat with us. My friend, Remus, he was a friend of your parents as well. He really wants to meet you. Why would I make you go-is that what your aunt and uncle make you do when they have people over? They make you go away and pretend you aren't there?"

Harry avoided Sirius' eyes.

'Shit.' Harry thought, 'Shit, I shouldn't have said that, Uncle Vernon will…oh, shit.'

Sirius felt his temperature rise. How could the Dursleys treat Harry like that? Sirius suspected that Harry wasn't particularly favored due to his relatives hate of magic but he didn't realize how bad things might have really been. Sirius wanted to know what else was going on right then and there, but he didn't want to force Harry into telling him. Remus said that forcing Harry into doing something probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Sirius wasn't stupid, he had his own ideas about what he thought was taking place at the Dursleys; he just wanted Harry to confirm his theories, though he had a feeling that he wasn't going to get a word out of Harry.

"Harry, what is it like living with your relatives?" Sirius asked as gently as possible

"It's fine." Harry said and then quickly changed the subject, "So, what time is Remus coming over?"

Sirius sighed and suppressed the urge to apparate back to Privet Dive and kill the Dursleys, "He's coming around sixish."

"Right." Harry said, "I think I'm going to go upstairs for a bit. I'm kind of tired."

Before Sirius could protest or ask Harry anymore questions that Harry wasn't ready to answer, he left the kitchen and headed upstairs, closing his bedroom door behind him.

Harry paced around the room for a while. This wasn't good. Sirius was starting to pick up on some things. Harry needed to be more careful. If Sirius found out anything Uncle Vernon would kill him. Then he remembered all the times that Candy talked about living in foster families.

Candy had a really messed up home life, even worse than Harry's. She switched foster families more than she changed her socks. She always told storied about what crappy situations they were and about the crazy people she was placed with. Her parents were alcoholics and Candy was removed from their care when she was ten. She'd been shipped around from family to family since that time. Some of the stories Candy told Harry were pretty horrible. Harry didn't want to fall under that situation. He didn't want to go with a foster family because the Dursleys slapped him around ever so often. After all, it wasn't that bad, right? He could handle it.

Harry was determined to be as cautious as possible when talking about the Dursleys. He would spend the rest of the weekend being really calm about everything and not acting too fishy in any way. Avoiding the topic all together was his best bet. He'd talk about other things. Keep everything really light.

'Everything will be fine.' Harry reassured himself, 'I've got nothing to worry about. I can do this. I won't give anyone any reason to think something weird is going on. I can do this.'

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Like Sirius had said, Remus arrived a little after six. Remus' reaction to meeting Harry wasn't anything new. Remus started off as they all did by telling Harry how much he looked like James, except for his eyes. He had his mother's eyes.

Harry didn't mind though. Remus proved to be a nice person. Their dinner conversation was light and casual. Remus and Sirius told Harry storied about their days at Hogwarts and about the pranks of the Marauders. Harry had never realized what a joker his father was until then.

"So then McGonagall goes, "Mr. Potter, do you actually want me to believe that a dog ate your essay, on school grounds, where no dogs are permitted? Really Mr. Potter, this is the worst lie I have ever heard from a student in my entire life." Sirius grinned

He and Remus were telling a story about one time when James and Sirius had gotten extremely drunk and how Sirius, in his animagus form, had eaten James' essay because it was covered with firewhiskey.

"Professor McGonagall was so angry. She hated it when students lied and from her point of view, it looked like James was lying about his homework, when he was actually telling the truth. How was she supposed to know that Sirius was an animagus?" Remus said with a smirk

"Then James says with a completely straight face "Professor, I'm serious, a dog really did eat my homework." Then she say, "Okay Potter, if a dog did indeed eat your homework, where is this supposed dog?" Sirius continued

Remus picked up the story, "James then looked over his shoulder to where Sirius and I were sitting and gives him a look saying 'I am going to kill you' then he turns back to McGonagall and says 'Professor, a dog didn't eat my homework, Sirius did.'"

"Then I let out this loud bark that made the entire class start laughing and McGonagall was furious. Then I said to her 'I couldn't help it professor, I was starving and James' homework was the only thing in sight at the time, and it was a very good essay too, extremely delicious on the way down'. She gave us both detentions for the whole thing. It was worth it though. It was always fun causing chaos in Transfiguration." Sirius smiled

"It sounded really funny." Harry said with a smile, "I can't imagine what McGonagall would do if someone in our class acted like that. I don't think she'd tolerate it."

"Yeah, well, that was a long time ago. She probably had more patience for nonsense back then." Remus said

"When I got out of Azkaban and McGonagall found out that we had become animagi, she was really impressed. She knew that we were top students, but she never realized that we had accomplished something so difficult at such a young age." Sirius said

Harry thought a minute and then said, "You never told me why you had become animagi in the first place."

Sirius looked over at Remus, as though he was searching for some type of approval to tell the tale. Remus just stared back at him for a moment before nodding okay.

"Well," Sirius began, "The reason we became animagi in the first place was actually because of Remus."

"Really?" Harry asked, his attention turned to Remus. "Why?"

"I'm a werewolf." Remus said carefully, not sure how Harry would take this bit of information.

Harry didn't look angry or scared, like others before him from learning Remus' little secret. Instead, Harry just looked a little confused. "What does that have to do with becoming an animagus?"

"Everything." Sirius said

"Well, I'm sure that you know that werewolves are extremely dangerous on a full moon." Remus said to Harry, who nodded. Remus continued, "Now there is a potion that a werewolf can take before a full moon to make them safe. The potion helps a werewolf keeps its mind in human form. But when I was younger, the potion didn't exist. I would turn into a vicious werewolf every full moon. I would be dangerous to any human. It was my biggest secret. I feared anyone finding out that I was a werewolf."

"Why? I mean, I've been here the entire night and you aren't dangerous at all. Why were you afraid of people finding out? It doesn't seem that bad." Harry said

Remus and Sirius couldn't help but smile at how naive Harry was. Although he sometimes did things that were much more mature than he was, he still had the innocence of a child.

Sirius said, "Harry, not everyone is as understanding as we are. Most people think of werewolves as horrible beasts-"

"And some are, but like anyone, the way a person acts depends on the person. There are good werewolves and bad ones. It just depends on the person who gets bitten." Remus cut in

"Anyway, Remus would disappear monthly to go and transform in a safer place on school grounds. Your father and I started to get suspicious about where Remus was going. He would tell us that his mother was sick and that he was visiting her, but after a while, we figured it out. And when we did, we weren't upset, we just felt bad that there wasn't anything we could do that could help Remus when he transformed."

"My transformations in those days were terrible. I'd have to spend the next day in the hospital wing just so I could recover. I would scratch and bite myself because I wouldn't have anyone else around to harm." Remus added.

"But what does that have to do with becoming an animagus?" Harry asked

"Werewolves are only dangerous to humans, not animals. James and Sirius decided to become animagi so they could keep me company as animals during my transformations."

"Did that help you a lot?"

"Oh yes. Very much so." Remus said

"It took us the better half of three years but we eventually managed it in our fifth year. We were able to accompany Remus on his transformations after that." Sirius explained

"Since they were with me as animals it gave me something to occupy myself with so I would hurt myself so much. It made me more human; it helped keep me from the scratching and the biting."

"You guys really did that?" Harry asked, impressed.

"We did." Sirius said, "We would have done anything to help a friend in need. Besides, Remus would have done the same for us. Right, Moony?"

"Moony?" Harry asked

Remus smirked, "Our nicknames for each other. I was Moony, Sirius was Padfoot, your father was Prongs and Peter-"

"-The filthy traitor." Sirius mumbled

"-was Wormtail." Remus said, giving Sirius a look that said 'Please do not even start on Peter Pettigrew, it would ruin the evening'

Sirius took Remus' hint and changed the subject, "So, what about your friends, Harry. What are they like?"

"Friends?" Harry was startled by the question

"Yeah." Sirius said, "The other day when I saw you, you told me that you were meeting friends later in the day. Do they go to school with you?"

"Oh," Harry said, "No, they don't go to school with me. They live near the Dursleys, most of them anyway. Yeah, I just met them at the park and we hang out some times."

"What are they like?" Sirius asked

"You know, just normal muggles, nothing special." Harry replied quickly

"How about in Hogwarts?" Remus asked

"Oh, my friends in Hogwarts, yeah, they're good. I haven't really heard from them too much this summer. I haven't been great at writing to them or anything. I will eventually, I've just been busy." Harry said. He didn't like this discussion. He didn't feel like talking about his friends right now.

Sirius, once again, saw Harry become tense from the topic. He looked up at the clock and said, "Wow, it's already eleven. Time flies, doesn't it?"

"I think I'm going to go to bed." Harry said, feeling that it was a good time to leave before anymore "fun" topics of conversation were brought up, "I'm a bit tired. It was nice to meet you, Remus."

"Nice to meet you too, Harry." Remus said as Harry got up from the couch and started to leave the room.

"Night, Harry." Sirius said

"Night." Harry replied, exiting the room. Sirius and Remus listened to Harry's footsteps going up the stairs. They waited until they heard the door to his room click shut before speaking again.

"So, what do you think?" Sirius asked

"I'm not sure what to think. He seems great though. He's Prongs' son, he has to be great."

"Something isn't right."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked

"Just the way he answered certain questions or the way he's really dismissive of things. It's not normal."

"What are you saying exactly?"

"I think that there is more going on in Harry's life then he's telling. I think his relatives are abusing him, and I don't like the sound of the kids he's hanging out with either. He's mentioned this one kid a few times, Brock. I don't know, I just don't like the sound of everything."

"Those are huge accusations, Sirius, maybe you're just reading too much into things. He's becoming a teenager. That's just how they are."

"This is different."

"How so?" Remus asked

"Do you remember when I would come back from summer holiday and home from Christmas break and you and James would ask me about the bruises and you'd start bugging me about the smoking and crap and I just act all weird on you like nothing was going on?"

"Yeah."

"He's acting like that, a toned down version at that, like he is trying to hide it, but he's acting like that. And he had a bruise on the side of his face a few days back. He said it was from him slipping in the kitchen or something like that. But if looked like someone punched him."

Remus asked, "Have you tried talking about it with him?"

"When I do he changes the subject."

"Maybe give him some more time to get comfortable with you and then he'll tell you what's going on."

"I only have one day left with him, and its not even a full day, how the hell do you expect me to get him to open up when I only have twelve hours, Remus?"

Remus shook his head, "I don't know. Have you talked to Dumbledore about it?"

"I have. He thinks I'm reading into it too much and that it's just a phase. He'd rather believe anything as long as it meant that Harry didn't have to leave the Dursleys. I just don't know what to do. If everything I expect is going on then I definitely don't want him going back there."

"Have him stay with you a little longer. Offer him to stay with you again next week, but this time make it for an entire week, not just a few nights. You need to get his trust before anything can happen, Sirius. You just need to be patient with him."

"I know, I know. That's a good idea though. I could have him stay a bit longer next time."

"It's the only option you have really."

"True. I just want to help him, you know."

"I know, Padfoot. I know."

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AN: Yeah! Finished that chapter. This was the longest one yet. See, told you that this one will be longer. Lol.

Okay, just some heads up, the next chapter will be the thing that Brock wants Harry to do. I bet it will blow your minds away because I doubt that you're expecting it. hehe, evil grin.

Please read and review. Reviews are awesome. Even just a nice job or something would be great.


	7. The beginning of all things

Chapter 7: The beginning of all things

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The next morning, Harry walked into the kitchen to find it empty. The door leading to the backyard was open, allowing a cool breeze to drift into the room. Harry fixed himself a bowl of cereal before heading out to the backyard.

The backyard had a small deck looking over the large gardens filled with sunflowers and other wild flowers. White roses were growing wild up the side of the house. The grass was getting long and needed to be cut. In the middle of the yard was a stone sundial surrounded by hostas and lilies. Sirius had told Harry that the lady who had owned the house before him had loved gardening and had planted all the flowers that were around the yard and in the front of the house.

The wood deck had a circular, glass table set up with four chairs. Sirius was sitting back in one of the chairs with his bare feet up on the table. He was eating a bowl of cereal and watching a bird fly around from tree to tree, still in his dark grey pajama pants and a white tee-shirt.

Harry came onto the deck and made his presence known, "Morning."

Sirius turned his head towards Harry and replied, "Morning, you're up early."

Harry nodded and came and sat at a chair across from Sirius. Sirius removed his feet from the table and sat up straight.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep any longer." Harry said as he ate a bite of cereal.

"So," Sirius began, putting his empty bowl down on the table, "this is our last day together."

"Yeah, it is." Harry replied, having another bite. "Too bad it was such a sort stay, you know; I had a really good time here and everything. It's nice to get away sometimes."

"I'm glad you said that, actually." Sirius smiled. "I really enjoyed having you stay with me. If you want, we can do it again. Maybe for longer next time. Maybe for a whole week."

"I thought Dumbledore wanted it to be a one time thing and then I had to decided if I was going to live with you or not." Harry said

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck and replied, "He did say that, but, things are different now. I think we should give it another week before anything becomes definite. Give us a chance to get to know each other better."

"Sounds good to me." Harry said. "Its not that I don't like you or anything, it's just, I don't know, weird I guess to think about me not living with the Dursleys and I just met you and everything..."

"I understand. It's a big change for both of us. I think that another week would be a good indicator for if you want to live here or not." Sirius said

"When should I come stay with you again?" Harry asked

"Well, today is Sunday. Uh…I have a few things that I need to take care of on Monday. And on Wednesday Remus has asked me to help him out with something, so how about on Thursday?"

"This Thursday to next Thursday?" Harry clarified

Sirius nodded, "Yup. A whole week. Then you can decide what you want to do."

Harry thought about this for a minute and then replied, "Alright. That sounds fair."

Sirius smiled, "Great, there are still so many things we have to do. I haven't taken you to all the great places to eat around here yet. And there is a really nice park that I could show you too. We could also take a trip into London, if you'd like. We could look in some muggle stores-"

"-Or get some tattoos." Harry added with a smile

"Sure." Sirius said

"Really?" Harry asked hopefully

"Sure, I've always wanted a tattoo." Sirius replied with a grin, "I could get a tattoo and you could watch from a safe distance where you are not near any needles what-so-ever."

Harry just shook his head and with a smile on his face he said, "Okay, maybe not the tattoo thing, but everything else sounds good. Thursday then, I can't wait."

"Thursday." Sirius repeated with a smile.

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Sirius drove Harry back to the Dursleys around five thirty. He didn't want Harry to be late for dinner and then get him in trouble since he wasn't sure exactly what happened to Harry when he was in trouble with his relatives. Harry got off Sirius motorcycle and picked up his bag and then turned back to Sirius.

"I'll see you on Thursday, Harry." Sirius said

"Right. Are you going to pick me up around the same time?" Harry asked

"Most likely. I'll owl you if something changes." Sirius replied

"Right." Harry sighed and then looked over at the Dursleys house with a frown. "I should probably go in."

"Yeah, you probably should." Sirius said with a sad smile, glancing over at the Dursleys house.

For a second, Harry thought that Sirius was going to pull him into a hug, but for what ever reason, he decided against it. He held out his hand instead. Harry took it and shook his hand good-bye.

"I almost forgot." Sirius said as he reached into his back pocket. "These are yours."

Harry looked at Sirius, confused. Sirius held out the pack of cigarettes he had taken from Harry a few days earlier.

Harry looked at Sirius, totally confused, and Sirius just replied, "Like I said, you can do what you want when you aren't with me; it's not really my right to take these from you. It's your choice after all."

Harry looked at the cigarettes and after a second he took them, hesitantly, and placed them in his pocket, "Truthfully, I don't think I'll need them. I think I'll just give them to one of my friends or something."

"Wise choice." Sirius said with a smile. Harry had obviously been thinking about what they had talked about a few days earlier.

Sirius smiled dropped and a serious look appeared on his face. He put a hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry jumped a little from the contact and looked up at Sirius questioningly. "See you on Thursday, Harry. Take care of yourself, alright. If you need me just owl me. Even if you just want to talk or something. I can't help it, it's just a feeling I guess, but I'm worried about you. Are you positive that you're alright and that you're ready go back to your relatives?"

"I'm fine." Harry said. "You have nothing to worry about."

Sirius looked into Harry's eyes for a few minutes before removed his hand from Harry's shoulder and just nodded, "See you Thursday, Harry."

And with that, Sirius drove off, glancing back quickly to watch Harry walk into the Dursleys house. Little did Sirius know, that letting Harry go was one of the worst decisions he could have ever made.

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"This wasn't part of our arrangement."

"I know it wasn't."

"Then why did you promise him more time? We had a deal, Sirius. You clearly said that you'd only need a few days and then if nothing happened, you'd leave the situation alone."

"I know I said that, but things are different now. The situation is more complicated than I had thought it would be. I need more time with him."

"The situation is no different from the way it was last week, Sirius." Albus Dumbledore said as he paced his office. Albus Dumbledore was one of the oldest and wisest wizards of his time. Normally, people trusted his decisions; Sirius however, was beginning to question Albus' decision of Harry's living arrangement.

Sirius was leaning against Dumbledore's desk with his arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. Remus was standing over by the window, watching everything take place. Sirius had asked Remus to come with him for moral support for when he went to tell Dumbledore about the new deal he had made with his godson.

"Things are very different, Albus. The situation is bad. I can tell. There is something wrong with Harry. He isn't telling us something. I need more time with him to find out what's wrong."

"What proof do you have that anything is actually wrong at all?"

"I just know." Sirius insisted. "He's acting strange."

"Strange, you've only just met him, how can you be sure that he doesn't always act like this?"

"Listen, I'm trusting my instincts on this one. There is something going on at the Dursleys. I think- I think his relatives are abusing him. They way he talks about certain things and the way he tries to avoid talking about others, it's just, it isn't normal. It's not normal for a kid to be so dismissive and secretive. The answer is right in front of our faces. We just need Harry to tell us and for him to tell us anything would require me to spend more time with him."

"He is safe with his relatives." Dumbledore stated

"Not if they are the ones making the situation unsafe. I'm his godfather and I will be damned if I let him stay there if they are going to treat him like shit. You even said yourself; they made him sleep in a cupboard until he was eleven. It's all right in front of you. Don't you see it, Dumbledore?"

Albus stopped pacing and turned to Remus, "Remus, what do you think?"

Remus thought a moment before he replied. Harry had seemed a little strange when the topic of his friends was brought up. The he thought about Sirius telling him how Harry smoked too. Maybe the Dursleys weren't the best guardians but they were all Harry really had. At the same time, Harry didn't seem to care about them whatsoever.

"I think we should give Sirius more time. If Sirius is right then it's best to get Harry out of that situation, if he's wrong, then there is no harm done. Give him another week with Harry. Nothing bad can come of it."

Dumbledore looked back at Sirius, "Sirius, Harry is safest with his aunt and uncle. I know that the thought of James' son living with them rather than you-"

Sirius cut him off, "-This has nothing to do with the fact that Harry is James' son. I'm Harry's godfather. He should be with me, not these muggles. If I wanted to, I could just take Harry away from there. I don't need your permission, Albus. I have the papers. I'm his legal guardian."

"Then why are you here, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked, looking at Sirius curiously with his sparkling blue eyes. "You're right; you don't need my permission to take Harry away. So, why are you here seeking it? If you are trying to change my mind it isn't going to happen. Taking Harry away from the Dursleys is a mistake-"

"The only mistake was leaving him there in the first place-" Sirius fought

"Taking him out of there will not help him, Sirius-"

"Leaving him there isn't helping either-"

"Hold it." Remus broke in, "This shouldn't be about what Sirius wants for Harry or what you want for Harry, Albus, this is a matter of Harry's best interest. If Harry is being abused then getting him out of there is the best thing for Harry."

"I couldn't agree further." Sirius said

"But," Remus continued, "If nothing is going on, what are you going to do, Sirius?"

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked

Remus sighed, "Albus is right, Harry is truly safest at the Dursleys, so if nothing is going on, are you willing to jeopardize his safety just to satisfy your own wants? This has to be about Harry."

"It is about Harry." Sirius said, a hint of anger in his voice, "Its always been about Harry."

"Is it?" Dumbledore asked, "Or is this about James?"

"What?" Sirius asked with a completely puzzled look on his face

Dumbledore continued, "Sirius, if this is about you feeling as though you owe something to James, that you feel obligated to take Harry because he is James' son, then don't take Harry. If this is all about James, then leave Harry alone. James would have wanted-"

Sirius cut him off, "James would have wanted Harry to stay with me. That's why I'm his godfather in the first place. Because James and Lily wanted Harry to be with me, not Petunia. Because James and Lily decided that if anything ever happened to them they wanted me to raise their son!"

"James and Lily would have wanted Harry to be safe, Sirius. How safe is Harry really going to be in your care?" Albus asked.

"I'll do anything possible to keep Harry safe. I already have the special protection spell on my house. We could make then even stronger. Look, this isn't about James, this has never been about James and it never will be about James. Harry is my godson and I care about him more than those muggles ever could. He needs me right now. He might not have grown up with his parents but I'm the closets thing he has to them. James was like a brother to me and I know that James and Lily would have rather seen Harry happy with me than miserable with his aunt. I know that I'm not perfect and I know that I can't offer the same level of protection that Petunia can, but I care about Harry more than you could ever know. I couldn't live with the fact that something is going on-and there is something going on-and I didn't do anything to stop it. We need to get Harry out of there and fast. Who knows what damage his relatives have already done? "

Dumbledore turned around and walked towards one of the windows in the room. He placed his hands on the window and stared out it. "So then, what do we do now? You'll have another week with him. What will that do, Sirius? What if a week is not enough? What if you don't find the answers you are looking for after the week is over?"

Remus looked at Sirius who was looked towards the floor. Sirius sighed and in a quiet voice said, "Then I'll leave him alone. I don't want to, and you know that. But, I'll leave him alone. He can write to me all he wants and maybe I can take him out now and then. But I'll leave him alone, he won't live with me."

Remus could see the hurt in Sirius' eyes. He could tell that this wasn't about James or Lily. This was about Harry, Sirius' godson. If only Dumbldore could see it that way too.

"I think that is the only option right now, but you'll only have a week, Sirius. That's the best we can do for Harry at this point."

"Something is going on." Sirius said, his grey eyes piecing Dumbledore's, "I'm sure of it. I'm not wrong. When I look in his eyes, it just-" Sirius stopped speaking and walked towards on of the book cases in the room.

"It's just what?" Albus asked

Sirius sighed and shook his head. In a quiet voice he replied, "Its just, when I look at him, I get this sort of twisted feeling in the pit of my stomach. His eyes, you look at them and you think Lily, but at the same time, they are really different than Lily's eyes."

Remus was intrigued by this, "What do you mean, Sirius?"

Sirius turned back towards his friend, "When you look into his eyes, they sort of, show what he's feeling. Like, all the things he's feeling, you just see them in his eyes. All the pain and all the emotion. They sort of, look out at you, it's like he's reaching for help, like he wants you to do something, but you feel like you can't. It's a terrible feeling. When you talk to him, he tries to act like everything's okay, but at the same time he gives you this feeling like something's wrong, but you can't see it."

Albus and Remus watched Sirius with great interest. After a moment, Sirius spoke again, "Harry needs help and he's not going to come out and ask for it unless we can show him that we are there for him. I need to help him. I need to know what's going on."

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When the Dursleys household had finally gone to sleep that night, Harry exited the house and headed towards the park. Everything was quiet that night. A little too quiet for Harry's liking. Even when he got was walking to the hang out spot in the park, he heard nothing. No owls, not birds, no cars driving, no wind, nothing. The town was silent.

When Harry had arrived at the sight the usual gang was there, minus Ben and Taylor. Candy was sitting on a rock, smoking a joint; John and Max were playing poker by flashlight. Brock walked over to Harry with a smile.

"I was afraid you wouldn't show up, Potter." Brock said and then looked at his watch. "Five more minutes and I was going to have to send someone else as a replacement."

"Well, I'm here." Harry said and then asked, "Where are Ben and Taylor?"

Brock's smile dropped and, "We had a difference of opinion."

Candy laughed, "Difference of opinion. Ben will certainly be feeling that difference of opinion tomorrow."

John snickered at the remark and Max just looked around a little worried.

"What does that mean?" Harry asked Brock.

"Nothing, nothing." Brock replied as he put his arm around Harry's shoulder. The contacted made Harry jump. "The important thing is that you're here and we are right on schedule."

"What are we doing tonight exactly?" Harry asked, "I mean, you never actually told me what I need to do for you."

"I just need you to meet a friend of mine, that's all."

"A friend?" Harry asked

"Yeah, a friend. Is that alright with you?" Brock asked, smiling viciously at Harry, watching his caustically with his fiery eyes.

"I guess." Harry replied, shrugging his shoulders

"Good, good." Brock looked back at his watch and smiled, "Come on, its time to go."

"Where are we going?"

"To meet my friend, Potter."

"We aren't meeting you're friend here?"

"Nah, we're going to him."

"Brock," Max called out, "Maybe this isn't a –"

Brock lashed out, "HEY! If you have a problem then we can sort it out like I did with Ben, alright. Is that what you want? I can easily arrange it."

Max quieted down and turned his eyes away from Brock. Harry felt worried. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"Come on Potter, let's go."

Harry let Brock lead him into another part of the woods, not realizing that what Brock had in store for him was going to change his life forever.

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AN: Okay, that was chapter seven. I had such a problem writing this one, I don't know why. It took me ages to work everything out. Crazy chapter seven!

I know, I'm horrible, I promised that we would find out what Brock wanted Harry to do for him, but I thought of a better way of showing it. I guess this could be considered a small turning point in the story. Things are going to change quite a bit after this. I promise, in time, you will find out what Brock got Harry to do.

Please read and review.


	8. Troubles

An: Yeah, this story now has over 1000 hits! Does happy dance…wait a second…that means I should have over 1000 reviews…PLEASE REVIEW PEOPLE. Reviews are good! Lol.

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Chapter 8-Troubles

"Boy, get in here now."

Harry sighed as he walked into the living room. Uncle Vernon was standing next to the couch with a bucket of water in his hand and displeased look on his fat face.

"What?" Harry asked

"Don't use that tone with me." Uncle Vernon said as he placed the bucket on the floor next to the couch.

"Okay, what can I help you with uncle Vernon? Is that better?" Harry asked monotonously

Vernon narrowed his eyes at Harry before turning towards the couch and pointing to the couch. "What is that, boy?"

"What is what?" Harry asked

Uncle Vernon walked over to Harry and grabbed him by the hair, making Harry gasp in pain. Vernon led Harry towards the couch, still holding onto Harry's head and pointed to one of the cushions that had a large stain and said, "That, what is that?"

"It looks like a stain." Harry said through gritted teeth

"And why is there a stain on my couch?" Vernon asked calmly, tightening his grip on Harry's hair

"I don't know. I didn't make it. It wasn't my job to clean…oh." Harry stopped speaking, mentally kicking himself. Aunt Petunia asked him to clean up a mess in the living room earlier in the day. Harry needed a smoke so he went to the park and figured he'd clean the mess when he got back. Only, he forgot.

"Didn't your aunt tell you to clean this up?" Vernon snarled

"Yes." Harry said hesitantly

"Then why didn't you?"

"I-I forgot."

"You forgot. You forgot." Vernon said and he let go of Harry's hair and walked towards the window, mumbling to himself about incompetence. Harry stood up straight and rubbed his sore head.

Vernon's face was red when he turned back toward Harry, frowning and glaring at Harry. He stormed towards his nephew and grabbed him by the hair again, repeatedly slapping him in the face with his other hand, "I'LL TEACH YOU TO FORGET DOING SOMETHING YOU'RE TOLD TO DO!"

When he finally released Harry he shouted, "I WANT THIS MESS CLEANED UP RIGHT NOW AND THEN I WANT YOU IN YOUR ROOM FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT! NO DINNER! AM I CLEAR BOY?"

"Yes, uncle Vernon." Harry whispered, looking toward the floor.

Vernon stormed out of the room and headed into the kitchen for dinner, leaving Harry alone in the empty living room. Harry walked over to the couch and picked up the sponge from the bucket of soapy water on the floor.

As he rung out the extra water in the sponge and moved towards the couch. With tears welling up in his eyes Harry whispered, "I hate Mondays."

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"Hey. Mind if I sit down?"

"I guess not. You look like shit by the way."

"I know. My stomach looks worse than my face though. Trust me. I've got a cracked rib." Ben said as he sat down next to Harry on the rock. They were sitting on the same rock near the pond where they had talked a few days earlier.

Ben looking like "shit" was an understatement. He looked like he lost a fight with a lawn-mower or was attacked by a vicious guard dog. Ben had a black eye and a small bandage over his right eyebrow. The side of his face was covered in numerous bruises and his lip was swollen looking with a cut that looked painful in its shade of deep purple.

Ben looked at Harry and gave him a sad smile as Harry lit up a cigarette.

"So, where have you been, Harry? I haven't seen you at all this week. I went to hang out with everyone on Wednesday, but you weren't there."

"I was busy. I haven't had much time to hang out." Harry replied

"So…how have you been?" Ben asked

"Just peachy." Harry said sarcastically, smoke escaping his mouth. Harry offered Ben a cigarette.

"Not thanks, I stopped, remember."

"I forgot. I've been doing that a lot lately." Harry said dryly as he put the pack of cigarettes back in his pocket.

Ben took a wobbly breath and swallowed. He looked as though he was trying to build up the courage to ask Harry something. They sat silently for a moment before Ben let out a deep sigh and began to speak in a quiet voice.

"Look Harry, about what happened a few days ago; I just want you to know that I didn't agree with it. Brock never should have made you do that and I tried to get him to change his mind. I tried to stop him."

"Bull shit." Harry spat, glaring at Ben. "You didn't even tell me what the fuck going to on. You haven't done shit for me."

"I tried to talk Brock out of it."

"Well thanks for nothing because Brock still went through with it. It would have been nice if someone told me what they were getting me into for fucks sake!" Harry said, throwing his cigarette butt to the ground.

"I'm sorry-"

"Save it, I don't even care anymore. You haven't done crap for me, Ben. Don't try and act like you've helped me in some great way. If you really had the balls to stop Brock you would have told your dad. He's a fucking cop for Christ's sake. But you didn't tell him because you were coving your own ass, you don't give a shit about me, don't try and act like you do."

"What?" Ben said in a hurt tone. "No Harry, it wasn't as simple as that-"

"Oh don't even give me that. You could have easily told someone what was going on. You were looking out for yourself. You didn't want your father knowing you were smoking pot or anything like that. You were saving yourself, not me. Don't try and act like a hero, I know more about heroes than any one and trust me, you're no fucking hero. So what if Brock knocked you around a bit, big deal, it didn't change shit. You're as bad as them so don't try and act like my friend because I don't give a fuck about you guys either." Harry said angrily as he got up from the rock and started to walk away.

Ben sighed and got up, talking off after Harry. He grabbed Harry by the arm, "Wait a minute-"

Harry turned around, pulling out of his grip, "Don't fucking touch me!"

"Sorry, I just wanted to get your attention." Ben said, slightly confused by the outburst.

"Well, what?"

Ben sighed, "Listen, please don't be mad at me. I tried to stop it. I really did. It's not always as easy as it seems. Just please; don't be mad at me for what Brock got you into. I'm not the one who-"

"Just shut up, alright. God, I'm sick of hearing about it. Look, I've got to go." Harry cut him off. "I've got to get home; I'm going away for the week, I'm staying with me godfather. See you around."

Harry said as he stalked away. Ben watched Harry leave, wondering if Harry was really going to be okay.

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When Harry arrived back at the Dursleys, Sirius' motorcycle was already in the driveway. Harry walked into the house to find Sirius sitting in the kitchen with his aunt, glaring at one another. If Harry's uncle was home when Harry came in late he'd have hell to pay later. Luckily uncle Vernon wasn't home to yell at him for leaving his _dear_ aunt alone with a freak like Sirius.

"Hey, kiddo." Sirius said with a smile. "Ready to go?"

"I'll just go get my stuff." Harry said and headed upstairs.

Harry walked into his tiny bedroom and pulled out a small black duffle bag and started cramming it with clothes (and a few packs of cigarettes). He hadn't actually gotten around to packing yet. He had a few more important things on his mind than what type of shirt he should pack for Saturday.

It hadn't been a good week for Harry to say the least. After Sunday, Harry had to deal with Dudley using him for a punching bag almost daily, aunt Petunia yelling at him for not cleaning the kitchen the right way and uncle Vernon _punishing_ him for mowing the backyard incorrectly. Harry's back was still feeling the punishment several days later.

He opened the top drawer to his dresser and pulled out a pair of pants. As he pulled them out the contents from its pocket fell to the floor.

'Shit.' Harry thought to himself, looking at the bag of pot on the ground. 'I forgot about that.'

The pot, along with a large amount of cigarettes and a good deal of money, had been Harry's compensation for the job he had done for Brock.

"Harry? Ready?" Sirius shouted from downstairs.

"Yeah. Coming." Harry shouted back. He bent down and picked up the pot and threw it into the duffle. He'd deal with it later, but for now, he had to get going. He zipped up the bag and headed downstairs.

Sirius was standing next to the front door. "Got everything?"

Harry nodded and he and Sirius walked out to the driveway and climbed onto the motorcycle. This was going to be a long week.

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When they arrived at Sirius' house, Harry went upstairs and put his things in his bedroom and started to unpack. He carefully hid the items he didn't want Sirius to see amongst the clothing in the dresser. When he finished unpacking he threw the duffle bag to the floor and laid down on the bed.

He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the peaceful breeze coming into the room through the open window. Harry sighed quietly and kicked his shoes off revealing a pair of socks that had a hole in the right toe. The bed was so comfortable; Harry felt like he could stay there for hours. He hadn't slept that well in the past few days. Harry yawned and listened to the soft breeze outside his window, drifting off to the calming noise.

_Harry didn't know where he was going, but he followed as Brock led the way amongst the trees. Harry had never been in this part of the park before. It was all new to him._

_The trees in this part of the park were different from the ones he was use to. These ones seemed older, more decrepit, like maybe they had been in a fire a long time ago and were only recently starting to recover. The branches on these trees were much barer and the colors weren't as vibrant. _

_They walked for a little longer before they came to a clear opening. Park next to a tree was a black car with tinted windows. Harry looked up at Brock and asked, "Where are we?"_

"Harry?"

Harry jolted up and rubbed his eyes with his palms. He looked around the room and took a deep breath. It was just a dream.

"Harry?" Sirius' said from behind the door, "Can I come in?"

"Yeah." Harry croaked, calming himself down. Sirius opened the door and walked into the room.

Are you okay?" Sirius asked

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just dozed off."

"So, you're all settled in then?"

"Yeah." Harry replied

"Are you sure that you're feeling alright?" Sirius asked. "You look sort of pale."

"I'm fine." Harry replied

"You sure? You look-"

"I'm fine." Harry snapped, defensively. Sirius raised an eyebrow and Harry looked away.

"Right…" Sirius said. "So, I was thinking, how about we order something in for dinner tonight? Does that sound good?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's fine." Harry said. "What ever you want to do is fine with me."

Sirius nodded and turned to leave the room. He stopped at the door and turned back toward Harry, "You're sure that you're feeling alright? You've been really quiet since you got here."

"I'm fine. Really. Just a little tired from the trip. Actually, I think I'll just go to bed early. I'm not really hungry." Harry said

"You sure? You're really not hungry? Not even a little?" Sirius asked

"Nah, I'm just going to get some sleep." Harry said

Sirius looked concerned but thought that it was best to just let Harry be for a little while. "Well, if that's what you really want to do then that's fine. I guess I'll see you in the morning then. Night, Harry." Sirius said, closing the door behind him as he left the room.

Harry wasn't really going to sleep. Even if he wanted to sleep, he couldn't. Every time he closed his eyes he saw bad images replay in his mind. They sent chills down his back just thinking about it.

'I need to relax." Harry thought to himself. He walked over to the door to his bedroom and locked it, quietly. Harry then walked to his dresser and took out a new pack of cigarettes and opened it. He went to the window, opened it wider and sat on the edge. He lit up a cigarette and rested his head against the window frame, watching the smoke escape through the window, wishing the thoughts in his mind would flow out the window just like the smoke.

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AN: Okay, that was chapter 8. I hope everyone liked it.

The bit at the beginning with Vernon, I decided to put that in to get better sense of Harry's life, I hope that it didn't come across as just a random bit I put in.

We are going to learn more about Sirius' life in the next few chapters probably. He'll keep trying to get through to Harry and every time he gets close Harry will get more distant and push him away, maybe even get angry at Sirius. I'm not too sure yet. We'll also find out about what happened to Harry through his dreams (Or should I say nightmares?).

Anyway, please review. No flames. If anyone has any suggestions for something that Harry could get really mad at Sirius for please let me know. That would be a great help for later on.


	9. Similar Life

Chapter 9-Similar life

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_They walked for a little longer before they came to a clear opening. Parked next to a tree was a black car with tinted windows. Harry looked up at Brock and asked, "Where are we?"_

"_Just a spot in the park. Not many people come around here anymore." Brock said._

"_So, why are we here exactly?"_

"_I already told you, Potter. To meet my friend." Brock replied, nudging his head towards the car across the clearing. _

"_Who is he?" Harry asked._

"_My friend?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Just a guy really."_

"_What's his name?"_

"_Mauricio." _

"_How'd you meet him?" Harry asked, looking at the dark car. _

_Brock reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He lit the cigarette and took a drag from it. Brock made his lips form an O shape then blew a smoke ring. _

_He chuckled, "I love making those...I met Mauricio while ago. He's been a real help at getting me the shit I need to sell. He knows the right people and gets me the things that I need to get for other people."_

"_So, he's like a business partner?"_

"_In a way, yeah, I guess you could say that." Brock said with a grin._

"_So, what does this have to do with me?" Harry asked._

Harry shot up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. He looked around the room and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. It was just a dream. Another stupid dream.

Harry flopped back down onto the comfortable bed, resting his head on the soft pillows as he rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes. He reached for the nightstand, picked up his glasses and put them on.

Harry looked towards the window; morning sunlight was poking through the curtains. He turned over to glance at the clock on the nightstand. It was seven-thirty.

Knowing that there was no way he could get back to sleep, Harry pulled the covers off himself and rolled out of bed. He opened the door to his room and walked out into the hallway, still in his pajamas.

As Harry exited his room, the bathroom door opened, letting steam escape into the cool hallway, followed by Sirius who had a towel wrapped around his waist and water dripping down his neck from his wet hair.

Harry hadn't noticed how thin Sirius actually was until that moment. Sirius ribs were outlined, easily seen through his skin and is stomach was flat and had very little definition. Azkaban must really do a number on a person's body.

Sirius was startled, not expecting to see Harry up so early. Sirius smiled and said cheerfully, "Morning. You're up early."

"Yeah. I was going to go have breakfast." Harry replied.

"I'll join you. First let me go get dressed." Sirius said before walking off to his room.

As Sirius turned towards his room, Harry's eyes grew wide as he saw Sirius' back. Sirius spine stood out easily because he was so thin, but that was not what Harry's eyes were drawn to.

Starting from Sirius' right shoulder blade, down to his lower back was a line of raised skin. A scar; and a nasty looking one at that. Although it looked old and painless, Harry couldn't help but hold his breath when looking at it. Just the mere sight of it made Harry imagine how much that must have hurt.

Sirius opened the door to his room then turned back to Harry who was just staring at him. Sirius raised and eyebrow at his godson. "Harry, you okay?"

"What?" Harry said, moving his eyes to meet Sirius'. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'll meet you downstairs."

Sirius just nodded and went into his room, closing the door behind him. Harry sighed and headed downstairs, still thinking about what he had just seen.

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Sirius came into the kitchen, now wearing a navy tee-shirt and jeans, and walked over to the counter to prepare a cup of coffee for himself.

"Did you sleep well?" Sirius asked, pouring the hot coffee into a mug.

"Yeah, I slept great." Harry lied

"That's good. What do you say to pancakes for breakfast?"

"That's fine, fine." Harry said, staring at Sirius' back as he walked over to the refrigerator and started taking out some eggs, still picturing the scar through his shirt.

As Sirius began mixing the batter, Harry asked, "Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Where did you get that scar?"

"What scar?" Sirius asked, confused.

"The one on your back."

Sirius stopped mixing and rested his hands on the counter and gave a small chuckle. "Oh, that. That scar would be compliments from my _loving_ father."

"You dad did that to you?" Harry said, in disbelief.

Sirius turned to face Harry and nodded his head. "Yup."

Harry looked stunned. "I though you said that your parents didn't beat you."

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, I had just met you when you asked me and I didn't really think it was appropriate for me to just come right out and tell you about how my father use to hit me. I thought it might creep you out or something. Plus, it isn't great conversation starter."

"It looks like shit." Harry said, referring to the mark on his godfather's back.

Sirius nodded, "That it does, but it could be a lot worse."

"How'd it happen?"

Sirius looked a little uncomfortable and Harry quickly said, "That's alright, you don't have to tell me, it's not my business."

"A belt."

"Huh?"

"He, uh, he hit me with a leather belt."

"Why?"

Sirius gave Harry a sad smile, "I don't know why, kiddo. Why would any adult want to hurt a child? My father was an asshole. There isn't much to the story really. He got mad at me one night, he probably had been drinking too, and he came into my room and just…"

"How old were you?"

"Older than you. I was sixteen."

"And he just lashed you with a belt for no reason?"

"Pretty much. My parents and I never got along. We'd fight a lot and then my dad would get really pissed at me and he'd start blaming me for things and he'd tell me that I was a worthless waste of life. My parents always favored my brother because in their eyes, he was the perfect son. He would do whatever they told him to do, no questions asked. But with me, I never agreed with them. They were bastards, always thought they were better than everyone else, that purebloods were like gods and everyone else was scum. I disagreed with them and it always made my father angry. He saw it as defying the family or his authority I think. So, if my father couldn't make me act like a proper pureblood by using words, he'd hit me to prove a point. I guess he thought that knocking me a round a bit would make me become something I wasn't." Sirius explained quietly.

"So, is that why you left your house, because your parents were beating you?"

Sirius nodded, "Pretty much. I mean, it used to be a lot worse when I was younger. By the time I was sixteen they basically stopped hitting me except for a few rare occasions like the belt incident. We normally just argued a lot and I just didn't want to deal with it anymore. The night that I got this beauty," Sirius pointed to his back, "was the night I left my house and went to stay with your dad."

"Did my dad know what was going on in your house before you went to live with him?"

"He did. So did Remus. They sort of figured it out after a while. When we would have school breaks, my family would make me come home to spend time with them, trying to turn me into a pureblood maniac, which normally resulted in a huge fight, leaving me with a bunch of bruises to deal with when I returned to school. James and Remus eventually confronted me about it in our fourth year when I came back to Hogwarts with a broken rib."

Harry looked upset, "Why didn't my dad say anything? Why didn't you guys tell an adult or something?"

"I made them promise not to say anything. I told them that it wasn't really a big deal and I made them think that I could handle it. They hated that I wouldn't let them help me but I didn't want anyone else to know what was going on. I was embarrassed enough that my friends knew about it."

"Why were you embarrassed?" Harry asked

"Well, I had sort of a macho attitude about everything then and the thought of people thinking that I was weak and was getting beaten by my own father made me feel stupid."

"That's really dumb. He could have fucking killed you. You should have said something to someone or my dad should have told someone. You needed help."

"Well, eventually I realized that. After the belt incident, I knew that things were getting out of hand and that I needed to get away from my family before they did any permanent damage. I went to James' place, knowing that I'd be safe there and I stayed with him until I was old enough to get a place of my own."

Harry still wasn't happy. "I just can't believe you waited so long to actually get yourself out of there."

"Sometimes, when people need help, they don't know how to go and ask for it. I was young. I didn't really know what to do. I'm just glad that you can understand the severity of the situation. No child should have to feel threaten in their own home. Just make sure that if you know someone who is getting hurt that you tell someone. If you don't, well, they could end up with worse than a nasty scar on their back. No kid should ever have to deal with what I went through. If that ever happened to you I'd…"

"You'd what?" Harry asked.

"I'd do everything in my power to keep you safe, let you come live with me. Either that or kill the bastard who was hurting you." Sirius said but then smiled, "But hey, it's not like this is happening to you, because if it was, I know that you'd tell someone right away. As you said before if someone is getting abused they should ask for help and drop the macho act, right?"

Sirius turned back to his pancake batter and waited for Harry to say something. Harry looked at his hands folded in his lap. Sirius' home life was sort of like his. The beatings, the verbal abuse, Sirius had been through all of it. It was almost like looking in a mirror for Harry.

Harry looked up at Sirius. "Sirius."

"Yeah?" Sirius said, turning around to face his godson.

"I, uh, I-I'm going to go take a quick shower."

Sirius face dropped a little. Harry thought that he even looked disappointed. Sirius gave Harry a small smile, "Okay, breakfast will be finished by the time you're done."

Harry nodded then left the kitchen and headed upstairs. For a second, Harry thought about tell Sirius everything. But for some reason, even after hearing Sirius' story, he just couldn't.

Once Sirius' heard the bathroom to door close, he ran a hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck, shaking his head.

'Damn.' He thought. 'I was close.'

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AN: So we learn about Sirius' past a bit more and Harry was nearly going to tell him about everything going on but then chickened out.

Special thanks to glory boots who edited the chapter and always helps to fix up my stories. (Read glory boots' stories, they are really good.)

I have no idea what I'm doing in the next chapter. So don't how long it will take me to update.

**I need an idea that would start a fight between Sirius and Harry. Someone please give me an idea. I'm having so much trouble with a fight scene! Any ideas would be really helpful. **

And **Please review**. I mean, what's the point of reading all the way up to the new chapters and not reviewing? It doesn't make sense. I'll have like 70 hits on a new chapter and only get 3 reviews lol. It makes me so confused. Lol. So please, review. Even just a nice job would be great.


	10. The Calm before the Storm

Chapter Ten- The Calm before the Storm

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"_So, what does this have to do with me?" Harry asked._

"_What do you mean, Potter?" Brock questioned, lighting up another cigarette. _

"_Well, why do I have to meet your friend?"_

"_He wanted to meet some of my customers, you know, see how I've been treating you guys, if I've been doing a good job for all of you. So I just decided that you would be the person that Mauricio would want to meet most out of the rest of the group." _

"_Why? Why me, I mean, what about John or Ben-"_

"_-What's with all the questions? I chose you, there is nothing to it. Don't be so fucking paranoid." Brock spat. _

_Harry backed away from Brock a little. "Okay, okay, sorry, I was just asking."_

_The car across the clearing turned on its head light and quickly turned them off. Brock threw his cigarette to the ground. "Okay, that's our cue. Let's go." _

_Harry and Brock crossed the clearing and made there way over to the car, their footsteps echoing in the silent night. Brock opened the door to the back seat and poked his head in, whispering quietly. _

_He turned back to Harry and said, "Wait here a minute." then climbed into the car, closing the door behind him. Harry shrugged and went to lean against dead tree nearby. He looked around the dark clearing, taking in his new surroundings. _

_This part of the park was much darker than Harry had imagined and although it was a little intimidating, Harry could only see beauty amongst the half dead trees. The sky was a mix of deep purple and black. The vibrant moon glistened in the clear sky, illuminating the trees, giving them an eerie glow. The sky was a sea of stars, shining brightly in the depths of night, looking down at the world. Looking up towards the sky, Harry couldn't help feeling a little lost in the vast universe. _

_The sound of the car door opening turned Harry's attention away from the sky. Brock stepped out of the car with a smile on his face._

"_Well?" Brock asked._

"_Well what?" Harry replied._

"_Well are you going to stand there all night or are you going to get in?" _

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Harry bolted up awake, yet again. It had been three days since Harry had arrived at Sirius' house and he still hadn't had a peaceful night sleep. Harry reached for his glasses and put them on, wiping beads of sweat off his forehead. He turned his attention to the clock. It was three in the morning.

Harry groaned in frustration and climbed out of bed, turning on the small lamp on his nightstand. He walked over to the dresser and opened it, taking out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter then went to sit by the open window.

In the past few days, Harry had already gone through two packs of cigarettes. Although Harry had previously promised that he wouldn't smoke while he was staying with his godfather, he was having difficultly keeping true to his word. The lack of sleep caused great tension for Harry. Smoking was his only way to calm down and relax his tired body.

Harry suspected that Sirius knew that he was smoking again. When Harry would go outside in the backyard for short periods of time, he would come back into the house with the fresh sent of smoke lingering on his clothes, hands and breath. Sirius was also probably able to smell the smoke from Harry's bedroom, which was staring to smell like a cigar shop. Sirius, however, hadn't said anything about it yet to Harry.

At this point, Harry didn't really care if Sirius was bothered by what he was doing. Sirius had been getting on Harry's nerves for the past few days. Every time Harry would walk into a room Sirius would ask him if he was okay or ask how he was doing. And when Sirius wasn't asking him annoying questions about his well being, he would watch Harry out of the corner of his eye, like he was some sort of experiment.

Harry wasn't use to being watched so closely. It made him feel uncomfortable for some reason. The Dursleys never looked at him the way Sirius did, the Dursleys never showed any interest in their nephew. They hardly even noticed Harry half of the time. They couldn't care less about him. Even though Harry should have been happy that Sirius seemed to actually care about him, he couldn't help but feel like he was being suffocated, like he had no free space to himself. Harry hated feeling as though he needed someone watching him all the time. He had been fine all by himself up to this point, he hadn't needed anyone before. Sirius' constant watching made Harry feel like a child, as if couldn't take care of himself. But Harry wasn't a child; he hadn't felt like a child in a long time.

Harry lit up another cigarette and rested his head on the cool window frame, closing his eyes. Harry rubbed his tired face and listened to the trees blowing in the wind. He sighed, letting the smoke escape from his nose and drift out the window. Once he had finished his cigarette, he put it out, then wrapped the cigarette butt in a tissue and threw it into the trashcan next to his dresser, hiding the evidence. Harry then pulled out another cigarette and placed it in his mouth, lighting it as he sat down on the window frame.

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Sirius listened to the sound of the lighter flicker on. A moment after, he heard Harry exhale softly as the smell of smoke leaking into the hallway. Sirius sighed quietly as he pulled his ear away from Harry's door, looking disappointed.

Sirius gently walked away from the door, not wanting Harry to realize that he was also awake at this unruly hour of the night. The past few nights had been just like this one.

Sirius would be asleep in his room and, being a light sleeper thanks to Azkaban, would be woken to the sound of Harry opening his dresser drawer and closing it loudly. Sirius would then tip-toe to Harry's room and lean against the door, listening to his godson smoking by the window.

Every time Sirius heard Harry light up a cigarette he felt a pain jolt into the pit of his stomach, feeling like he was failing in his duties of being a responsible godfather. James and Lily would have been so disappointed. All Sirius wanted to do was to run into Harry's room and grab the cigarette out of Harry's mouth. Only he couldn't. Harry had been so distant for the past few days, Sirius was afraid to do anything that could possibly hurt their already fragile relationship.

Sirius walked towards his room, his bare feet padding on the wood floor, gently closing the door behind him as he slipped inside. Sirius sighed and then loudly opened his door, walked into the hallway and noisily went downstairs to get a drink of water. Sirius hoped that his loud presence would scare Harry into going back to bed.

By the time Sirius returned upstairs, Harry's room was silent and the smell of smoke had greatly faded from the hallway. Sirius thought about going to check on Harry, but thought against it and went back to bed, hoping that things would be better in the morning.

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The morning and the afternoon passed rather quickly. Harry tried avoiding Sirius by going in the backyard and resting under the trees and by staying out of the rooms his godfather was occupying. During breakfast and lunch, Harry stayed silent, brushing off Sirius's conversations with nods or shrugs. When Sirius started to ask him questions Harry would get defensive and exit the room, leaving both Sirius and Harry feeling frustrated.

Harry was in his room, resting on his bed. Harry's back was propped up against a pillow as he read _Quidditch Through the Ages_. A knock on the bedroom door made Harry look up from his book.

"Come in." Harry said monotonously.

Sirius came into the room, a half smile on his face. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Reading." Harry replied boringly, turning his attention back to his book.

"Feel like doing something?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"No." Harry replied.

Sirius raised and eyebrow. "No? Well, I want to go into town-"

"-Have fun."

"-and I wanted you to come with me."

Harry looked back up at Sirius with an expression that read 'You've got to be kidding me; there is no way in hell that you are getting me to leave this room.'

"I'll pass." Harry growled.

Sirius continued, "There are a lot of great shops in town that you still haven't seen yet."

"I don't feel like it." Harry said, turning a page in his book.

"It will be fun." Sirius insisted. "Come on, let's get out the house for a little and get some fresh air. You'll have a good time. I promise."

Harry sighed. "For how long?"

"I don't know. An hour or so. Trust me; it will be good to get out of the house for a bit. You get dressed and then we'll go into town and walk around. Okay? It will be fun, Harry."

Harry sighed and closed his book, knowing that Sirius wasn't going to let Harry get out of going into town. "Fine."

"Great." Sirius said, smiling. He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him so Harry could get changed out of the pajamas he had been wearing all day.

Harry got up from the bed and went to the dresser then pulled out the pair of jeans that Sirius had gotten him last time he came to visit and a green tee shirt. He got dressed quickly then searched through the drawers for his black jumper. Once he found it, Harry pulled the jumper out of the dresser and pulled it on over his head. As he did, the contents of the jumper pocket fell to the floor.

The bag of pot. Harry had forgotten all about it. He looked at the untouched bag on the floor, wondering what he should do with it. He bent down and picked it up, looking at it uncertainly. Harry didn't know what to do with it. He definitely wasn't going to smoke it anytime soon. Drugs weren't his thing.

'I could give this to John or Max or someone.' Harry thought but then remembered, 'Wait, I'm not going back there anymore.'

A knock at the door made Harry jump and he shoved the bag into jumper his pocket.

"Yeah?" Harry croaked.

Sirius opened the door. He was dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a navy blue button up shirt with the top few buttons undone, revealing a white tee-shirt underneath. "Ready?" He asked.

"Yeah." Harry said.

"Good. Let's go." Sirius said and exited the room then went downstairs. Harry reached into his pocket a pulled the pot out. He needed to hide this.

"Come on, Harry." Sirius called impatiently from the foot of the stairs.

Harry shoved the pot back in the jumper pocket. He'd hide it when he got back home. "Coming." Harry shouted down to Sirius, and then left his room, closing the door behind him.

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Sirius' house was only a five minute drive from the little town. As Harry and Sirius drove into town, Harry couldn't help but feel like the town looked like it came out of a picture book. The sidewalk was neatly paved and kept clean. The parking lot was lined with trees and plants. Near the parking lot was a small, shaded park with a swing set and slide for smaller children to play at. The shops were close together and dressed in pastel shades of blue, cream and peach. They had little awnings and benches outside some of the shops. People were walking up and down the street, shopping and enjoying themselves.

Sirius parked his motorcycle in the parking lot then he and Harry made their way towards the shops. Sirius and Harry walked along the streets, silently window-shopping for a while before Sirius broke spoke.

"I have to go into the tea shop here. I told Remus that I would pick up some weird type of herbal tea for him. If you want, you can go look in another store while I do this. Buying tea isn't exactly exciting."

"Whatever." Harry mumbled.

Sirius sighed. "Why don't you check out the art shop. They have some cool paintings done by local artist. You'll like it."

"Fine." Harry said as he started to walk away from Sirius.

"Wait in there for me. Okay, Harry?" Sirius said and Harry just nodded, then turned in the opposite direction of his godfather and rolled his eyes. Harry needed a smoke.

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Harry walked down the street, back towards the parking lot. Harry located a little pub, and wandered to the back of it, knowing he could smoke privately there. He leaned against the cool brick walls as he lit up a cigarette.

The back door to the pub sung open and out came a tall, thin woman with curly blonde hair and bright red lipstick. Her fingernails were long done in a French manicure style. She was dressed in black paints and a white shirt with a matching apron with many pockets. She searched her pockets frantically. She reached into her shirt pocket that had a nametag on it that said 'Charlotte'.

After a moment she sighed in exasperation. She turned to Harry, who she had just noticed, and nudged her head towards him. "You wouldn't happen to have another one would you, Cutie?"

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette and gave it to the woman. She took the cigarette and asked, "And a light?"

Harry nodded at her and handed her the lighter. She smiled gratefully at him and took the lighter. She placed the cigarette in her mouth and lit it before handing the lighter back to Harry.

She took a drag of the cigarette and sighed before turning back to Harry. "I probably should be telling you off for smoking at your age, but then again, I guess that would make me a hypocrite since I'm the one who asked you for a smoke."

"I guess so." Harry replied, slightly amused.

"How old are you anyhow? Ten?" She asked, examining Harry warily.

Harry looked offended. "I'm almost thirteen."

"Oh, _almost_ thirteen, I should have known, after all, all _almost_ thirteen year olds stand behind pubs and smoke, right?" Charlotte said, giving him a disapproving look before smiling.

Harry just shrugged and took another drag of his cigarette. "This one does."

Charlotte asked, "So, Cutie, you don't have anything better to do than stand around smoking? I was under the impression that ten-"

"-Thirteen."

"-_thirteen_ year olds go to the park and play video games for fun, not stand around smoking behind pubs in the middle of the after noon, all alone. Are you here all alone?"

"I'm not here alone. I'm with my godfather." Harry clarified.

"And he just lets you go off on your own. How responsible." Charlotte said, sarcastically.

"He doesn't let me." Harry said, "I just…"

"You just do what you want when ever you feel like it and ignore what he says?" Charlotte asked.

"Sort of, well, no, not really. It's complicated." Harry mumbled.

"Try me. I'm sure it's not that complex." She said.

"He's just been bugging me a lot lately." Harry said. "So I just thought…"

"You just thought you'd go off and have a few cigarettes and let him get all worried about you to teach him a lesson? Trying to act rebellious, Cutie?" Charlotte smirked. "It hardly ever works."

"No." Harry said, looking offended again. "It's just, I don't know."

"Are you mad at him?"

"Not exactly mad. He's just, he bugs me. I feel like I have no space. Like he cares too much and it's annoying. I'm not a baby; I don't need him around me all the time."

"Well, have you ever thought about it from his perspective?" Charlotte asked.

"What do you mean?" Harry questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm a Mum, I've got two kids, one is nineteen and the other is seventeen, and I know that when they were your age, I used to worry about them all the time."

"Why?"

"Well, it's a big world out there. There are a lot of things that adults try to protect there kids from. I suppose it could seem annoying at times but your godfather is probably so protective of you because he loves you very much."

Harry didn't say anything but he turned his gaze to the floor, letting Charlotte continue.

"And I can tell, just by the way you reacted to what I just said; that you care about him too and you probably already know how much he cares about you. He's probably worried about you, about your safety and your well being. All parents want to keep there kids safe, Cutie, that's just life. For instance, does he know that you smoke?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, he does."

"I'm sure he's worried about that too. I'm sure he isn't happy that you smoke. I assume he has been keeping a close eye on you lately, am I right?"

"Yeah." Harry replied.

"Have you guys been fighting a lot?"

"Not fighting. We haven't talked much. I've just been kind of ignoring him." Harry said, quietly.

"Well Cutie, there's your answer. I bet that he feels like a horrible godfather because you aren't talking to him. Maybe he feels like there is something bothering you and that you are afraid to talk to him. It's a scary feeling to know something going on with your kids that you can't help with. He's looking out for you by the sound of it. And he probably feels like he's failing as a godfather."

Harry sighed. "He isn't a horrible godfather or anything. I just, let's say, hypothetically of course-"

"-Of course." Charlotte grinned.

"-what if there is something bothering me, and I just don't want to talk about it. How do I explain that to him and get him off my back, err, hypothetically."

"Well, is this _hypothetical_ thing dangerous to you in anyway?" Charlotte asked.

Harry thought a moment. "I don't know."

"Well, this _hypothetical _thing, maybe you should talk to your godfather about it, because it sounds like it's a pretty complicated hypothetical situation."

"But I can't talk to him about this _hypothetically_ thing."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I don't want him to know, I guess. He's been really great to me and I don't want to make him worry."

"Well, this situation seems to have created some tension between you and him, Cutie."

"Hypothetically, of course."

"Naturally. Well, if I were you, I'd talk to him about it. Maybe if you aren't ready to talk about it with your godfather just yet, then maybe you could tell him that there _is_ something bothering you and you just aren't ready to talk to him about it yet, but when you are, you'll let him know."

"I could, I guess."

"It would probably put his mind at ease a bit. Make him worry a little less, help him know that you don't hate him and that he hasn't done anything wrong."

"I guess."

"Where is he right now?"

"In one of the stores up the street."

"And where are you supposed to be right now?"

"In one of the other stores waiting for him." Harry said guiltily. "He'd probably be worried if I wasn't there when he came to get me."

"I would imagine so." Charlotte said, giving Harry a small smile.

"I should get back." Harry said. He turned to leave but before he did he turned to Charlotte. "Hey, um, thanks for the advice."

"No problem, Cutie. I hope everything works out for you. You're a nice kid and your godfather sounds like he's just looking out for you. Don't be afraid to talk to him. I'm sure it would help you both to get some things off your chest. Carrying around worries isn't good for your health."

"Neither is smoking." Harry pointed out.

Charlotte laughed, "No, no it isn't. You'd better get going, Cutie. You've got a godfather to meet and I've got some tables to get back to. See you around."

Charlotte gave Harry a final wave before going back inside. Talking to Charlotte had actually helped Harry. It gave Harry some comfort that maybe talking to Sirius could make things a little better. He had to get back to the store. Harry threw his cigarette to the ground before heading off back to the shop.

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When Harry got back to the art shop, Sirius was standing outside, with a plastic bag from the teas shop on one hand, and a worried look on his face.

Harry approached him, ready to tell Sirius that he really needed to talk to him about a few important matters. "Sirius, I need to talk-"

"-Where the hell were you?" Sirius asked, cutting Harry off, anger taking place of the fear.

"I was just-"

Sirius grabbed onto Harry's shoulders and pierced his godson with his grey eyes. "Do you have any idea how worried I was just now? I told you not to wander off!" Sirius said firmly.

"But, Sirius, I need to-"

"No, you need to listen to me Harry James Potter, when I tell you to do something I expect you to listen! What the hell were you thinking?" Sirius said, furiously.

Harry's face grew red. Why was Sirius being such a jerk about this? Harry was only gone for a few minutes. "Relax, okay. The-Boy-Who-Freaking-Lived is still in one piece."

"What if something happened to you?" Sirius lowered his voice so he couldn't be overheard. "What if a Death Eater showed up and saw you wandering around and hurt you? You can't just wander around, it isn't safe for you! I need to know where you are at all times! I'm not going to take you anywhere if I have to worry about you walking off like a child! You understand me?"

Harry shook out of Sirius' grip. Harry pierced Sirius with a look of pure hatred that made Sirius' heart painfully clench. Sirius ran a hand through his hair, aggravated with himself as he realized that he over reacted, disconnecting himself further from his godson.

Sirius took a deep breath and put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Come on, we're going home."

Harry pushed Sirius' hand off his shoulder and glared at him. "I don't need you to lead me to the car park. I can get there just fine. Thanks." Harry replied sarcastically and began walking towards the parking lot, leaving Sirius behind him, glad that he hadn't told Sirius anything; he would have just overreacted to the situation.

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AN: That was a long chapter now wasn't it. Eleven pages in word! I had such bad writers block with this chapter. But I finally worked through it. I hope everyone liked this chapter, I hope it didn't come across as too boring.

I decided not to have Sirius and Harry actually fight; I just wanted to create some tension between them which works out better for later.

Hmm…well, the story is coming to an end, only three or four chapters left I think. You'll learn more about the Brock thing next chapter, along with a rather amusing tale in next chapter's AN on why I chose Mauricio as the name for Brock's dealer.

**Please review**! Gets down on knees and begs while making sad puppy dog face


	11. Breaking Point

AN: This is a long one people. 14 pages in word!

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Chapter Eleven-Breaking Point

When Harry and Sirius pulled into the driveway, fury ran through Harry's veins. Harry hopped off the motorcycle and went into the house before Sirius could try to say a word to him.

Harry slammed the front door behind him, trying to release the anger he felt. He kicked his shoes off; making them hit the front door with a loud thud. He grabbed his hair in frustration, ashamed of himself for ever trusting Sirius to be different than his relatives. Sirius was a jerk, just like all the other adults he had encountered. It would only be a matter of time before Sirius' starting using more physical means of punishment when Harry angered him.

Harry punched the wall, feeling humiliated. How could have let his guard down so easily? He quickly pulled off his jumper and threw it onto the couch, kicking the back of the sofa as he did so. Harry heading upstairs, slamming his bedroom door behind him then locked it shut.

Sirius entered the house just in time to hear Harry slam his door shut. Sirius rubbed his face in exasperation, knowing that Harry was going to be even harder to talk to after this.

He walked over to the couch and flopped down, exhausted, rubbing his face with his hands again, wondering how he was going to fix his mistake and make things right between him and his godson.

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Harry stormed over to his bed and threw _Quidditch Through the Ages_ across the room, hitting into the wall, making pages from the book rip out. Harry flopped onto his bed, burying his face into the pillow. He lay like that for a while, letting the rest of his anger pour out of his body as exhaustion took over.

"_Well?" Brock asked._

"_Well what?" Harry replied._

"_Well are you going to stand there all night or are you going to get in?" _

_Harry just stared at Brock, unsure how he should answer. "Get in?"_

"_Yeah, that's what I said, wasn't it?" Brock said, walking over to where Harry was standing. He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Harry. Harry looked down at the contents in Brock's hand before looking back up at Brock, questioningly. _

_In Brock's hand was a small bag of pot and several packs of cigarettes._

"_Take it." Brock said simply. "It's yours; it's the least I can give you for coming out here so late."_

"_But I-I don't do pot." Harry said, his eyes fixed on the bag in Brock's hand._

"_You will after this." Brock muttered under his breath._

"_What?" Harry said, looking up at Brock. "I didn't catch that."_

_Brock smiled. "Nothing, nothing, not a thing, Potter. Just take it. Trust me."_

_Harry watched him warily before reaching out and taking the contents in Brocks hand. He placed them in his own pockets, still unsure of why Brock was being so generous. Brock grinned at Harry and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, making Harry tense up. _

"_Well, he's waiting for you." Brock said as he led Harry to the car door. Brock opened the door for Harry and smiled. Harry looked at Brock uncertainly before getting into the car, expecting Brock to get in after him._

_Only, Brock didn't get into the car, he just closed the door behind Harry and starting walking off. Harry went to reach for the door handle so he could ask Brock why he wasn't getting in, but a deep voice caught Harry's attention. _

"_Leaving so soon?" _

_Harry looked towards the voice. This must have been Mauricio. He was a man in his mid-forties with long, dark brown hair that fell to his shoulders. His long face tan and had a waxy look to it. Mauricio's lips were pale pink and thin. His eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses and his wrists were covered in expensive gold chains. He was dressed nicely, wearing a blue button up shirt with short sleeves and khaki pants. _

_Harry felt his heart drop to his stomach as Mauricio moved closer to him. "How are you, Harry?" Mauricio asked gingerly. _

"_Fine." Harry said quietly, watching Mauricio nervously. _

"_That's good." Mauricio said has he put and arm around Harry's shoulders. Harry tensed from the contact, but Mauricio didn't seem to notice. _

"_How old are you, Harry?"_

"_Almost thirteen." Harry said hesitantly._

"_Hmm…that is young." Mauricio said as he smiled at Harry, revealing his crooked, yellow, stained teeth. _

"_So, you know Brock well, Harry?"_

"_I, uh, I guess." Harry replied, his eyes watching Mauricio's free hand move to his knee, making Harry's heart pound faster. Harry tried to move away from Mauricio without him noticing, but the attempt was a failure._

"_Are you scared, Harry?" Mauricio asked, an amused smile creeping onto his face. "There is nothing to be afraid of. It's just me."_

"_I don't even know you." Harry said blatantly. _

_Mauricio lifted his sunglasses and looked into Harry's eyes with his own. In the dark of the car, Mauricio's eyes chocolate brown eyes glowed out of their sockets, giving his face an unreadable look, causing Harry to feel even more uncomfortable. _

_Mauricio smiled at the look on Harry's innocent face. "Perhaps you and I should get to know each other better, huh?" _

_Harry didn't answer, he just watched as Mauricio's hand started moving slowly and his leg, coming to a resting position on his thigh. Harry inhaled shapely, fear manifesting his entire body. _

"_What can I do to make you feel more comfortable, Harry? What can I tell you? Hmm…" Mauricio smiled as he removed his arm from Harry's shoulders and started running it slowly down his back, making the hair on Harry's neck stand on end._

"_I, I, I, um…" Harry babbled, too scared to come up with anything to say. Harry was breathing heavily as Mauricio's hand made its way to the waist of his jeans. His heart was beating franticly, making the blood rush to his head. His ears pounded with the beat from his heart, his entire face was flushed. Harry was scared. More scared than he had felt in his entire life. More scared then when his uncle would hit him, more scared than he was when he saved the Sorcerer's Stone. Scared for what was going to happen. Scared for his life._

"_Still scared, Harry?" Mauricio asked, his dark and lustful eyes looking into Harry's green orbs. Mauricio moved his hand towards the front of Harry's jeans-_

"NOOOOOOOO!" Harry bolted awake, sweat pouring down his face mingling with the tears running down his cheeks.

He was breathing heavily and it took several minutes to calm himself down. He looked toward the clock, it was ten. Harry got off the bed and went to his dresser, pulling out a fresh pack of cigarettes and a lighter. After shoving them in his pocket he opened his bedroom door and went downstairs.

He spotted Sirius, who was asleep on the couch. Harry quietly slipped passed him and went out the front door, feeling the need for a long walk and a smoke. Grateful that Sirius had fallen asleep, making his escape easier.

Sirius stirred as the front door closed softly. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking over at the wall, seeing what time it was. A little after ten. He must have dozed off. Sirius got up from the couch and stretched. Deciding that he needed to talk to Harry about what had happened earlier in the day; he went upstairs, heading to Harry's room.

When Sirius reached Harry's door he knocked on it and received no response. He opened the door to find Harry's room empty.

"Harry?" Sirius asked, but received no reply. He walked out of Harry's room and headed towards the bathroom. Maybe Harry was in there. The bathroom was empty. He checked his own room, the living room and the kitchen, getting the same result. Harry wasn't in the house.

Sirius walked onto the back porch, thinking that Harry might have gone outside to smoke. He called Harry's name from the porch and waited for a reply. Nothing came. Sirius' heart dropped into his stomach. Where the hell was Harry?

He went back inside and checked the house for a second time, finding that Harry was still missing. Sirius looked back at the clock again. It was quarter after ten. That's when the panic started to set in.

Sirius ran over to the fireplace, pulled off a jar from the mantle piece filled with powder then threw a handful of the powder into the flames, calling out, "Remus Lupin."

Within a few minutes a face appeared in the flames of the fireplace. It was Remus. He looked at Sirius, confusion evident in his face. "Sirius, is everything alright, your face is pale."

"Harry's gone." Sirius replied quickly.

"What?"

"He isn't here. I-I fell asleep and when I woke up he was gone."

"He isn't anywhere in the house or outside?" Remus questioned, trying to remain calm.

"No! Don't you think I've already checked into that? Give me some credit please, Remus."

"Okay, well, just don't panic. Maybe he went for a walk."

"A walk? At this time of the night? He should be asleep, not walking around!"

"It's possible." Remus said, trying to be logical.

"What should I do? Should I go out looking for him? Should I call Dumbledore or what? I mean, what if some hurt him or worse?"

"Does the house look like someone tried to enter it?"

"No, no one came in. The alarms would have gone off if someone tried to break in. Plus, you can't apparate into the house because of the spells Dumbledore has on it." Sirius said. He rubbed his eyes with his hand and said quietly, "Harry must have left."

"Why would he just leave without telling you?" Remus asked.

"Because he hates me." Sirius said, hurt evident in his eyes.

"He doesn't hate you, Sirius. What are you talking about? How could Harry hate you?"

"He's mad at me. Earlier he wandered off when we went into town and I sort of freaked out on him. I was just so worried-and now he hates me enough to want to leave."

"I'm sure he doesn't hate you, Padfoot." Remus said encouragingly.

"Why else would he leave if he didn't hate me?"

"Maybe he just needed some fresh air and some time to cool off. I'm sure he's fine, Sirius. He's James' son after all."

Sirius remained quiet for a moment before replying. "I can't do this."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked, surprised that Sirius would even come up with such a comment.

"I can't do _this_. Act like a parent. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Harry isn't opening up to me. He's just becoming more distant. He won't talk to me. I'm trying but I feel like I'm getting nowhere."

"Sirius, don't say that-"

"I can't turn back time, you know. If I could, don't you think I would and prevent any of this from ever happening? Lily and James should be here dealing with this. Harry needs parents. I can't be James. Even if I try, I just can't Remus."

"So, that's it then?" Remus asked in disbelief. "You're just going to give up on Harry, just like that? That isn't like you at all, Sirius."

Sirius didn't reply, he just sighed, turning his gaze to the floor. "Harry isn't happy here."

"Harry isn't going to be happy anywhere!" Remus snapped. "He's twelve years old, he's difficult and I'm sure it makes you feel like a failure as a godfather because Harry isn't pouring his heart out to you, but if you give up on him now-you'll never ever get him to open up."

"But-"

"No buts. I know you aren't James. Harry knows you aren't James and I'm sure that he doesn't expect you to ever take the place of his father. No one could ever do that. But you made a promise to Prongs, that if anything ever happened to him and Lily, that you'd be there for Harry.-"

"-James never should have made me godfather in the first place! I don't know how to be a parent, Remus. What was James thinking? Harry needs someone who can help him; you know what James would say to me if he saw me right now? He'd call me a failure. He'd be so ashamed, I can't even imagine it. Prongs was my best friend, and I can't even keep a simple promise to keep his son safe when he went and risked his whole life for his family. What kind of person would want me to look after their kid? I'm pathetic as a parent." Sirius said, looking away from Remus, blinking furiously.

Remus gave Sirius a sad smile. "Sirius, when a parent dies, picking someone to take care of their kid is the hardest thing to do. They know that their places can never be taken. So you know what they do then? They pick someone who is most like them. James and you were practically brothers. You were so similar-it's obvious why you were made godfather. James knew that if he couldn't be there for Harry that he'd want Harry to be raised by the closest thing to him. That's why he chose you. He knew you'd love Harry as if he was your own son. You'd teach him everything about James, all the pranks, everything. James knew that you weren't perfect. James wasn't perfect. No one is. But he knew that if there was anyone who could attempt to fill James' shoes that you'd be it. Harry needs you now, more than ever. The only way James would be ashamed of you would be if you stopped caring. And I know that it is impossible for you to give up on Harry. That's why you're his godfather. Because James knew that you'd never give up on his son; that you'd be there for him no matter what. James would be proud of you for trying to help Harry, even if his son was acting like a little prat."

Sirius smiled at the last comment. "You really think so?"

"I know so." Remus smiled and then looked serious. "Harry is going to be difficult. That's obvious. So you know what you need to do? You need to sit him down and talk to him. You need Harry to realize that he isn't as alone as he thinks he is. That no matter what, you'll be there. You might get mad at him sometimes, but you'll always be there for him and you'll always care."

Sirius nodded. "You're right. Harry needs me. I care about him too much to just give up on him."

Remus agreed. "I think Harry just needed some space. I bet he'll be back within the hour."

"I hope so." Sirius looked to the clock. It was ten thirty. "If he isn't back by eleven thirty I'm calling Dumbledore."

Remus nodded. "Good idea, though I doubt you'll need to. I'm sure he'll be back soon. I have a feeling that Harry will mosey on in eventually."

Sirius sighed, running a hand through his hair. Remus gave Sirius a small smile. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Sirius replied. He looked up at Remus, piercing him with his grey eyes. "Thanks, Remus."

"No problem. Sometimes you just need to be reminded of why you're putting yourself through all the stress of raising a teenager in the first place. I'd better go. What are you going to do until Harry gets back?" Remus said.

Sirius looked around the living room, his eyes landing on a few blankets lying messily on the couch. "I guess I could clean up the living room a bit."

Remus chuckled. "Never thought I'd hear you say that. I'm going to head out. I'm sure everything will be fine. The three of us will get together again sometime next week once things settle down. Good night, Sirius. Good luck."

With a small pop, Remus' face disappeared from the flames. Sirius walked over to the couch and starting neatening the blankets, still thinking about what Remus had said.

He went to pick up Harry's jumper so he could hang it in the closet and get it out of the living room. As he picked it up, its contents flew out of the pocket and landed on the ground with a soft thump. Sirius looked at the floor; his eyes grew wide at the sight that greeted him.

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From the kitchen, Sirius could hear the front door open and then close, quietly. Harry had obviously arrived home and was trying to sneak back into the house unnoticed. Sirius looked at the clock, it was ten after eleven.

'Enough is enough.' Sirius thought to himself as he walked into the living room to find Harry trying to go up the stairs without making a sound.

"Where have you been?" Sirius asked, his arms were crossed over his chest and a frown was upon his face. Harry jumped, startled by Sirius and turned around to face his godfather.

"I was out." Harry replied and turned to go back up the stairs.

"Obviously you were out. Where the hell were you, Harry? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"I told you I was out." Harry spat.

Sirius couldn't take it anymore. The attitude, the sneaking out, the smell of smoke all through the house, there is only so much abuse a person can take. Sirius was on the brink of snapping.

"Come on," Sirius said slowly, "we're going to go sit in the living room and talk about this."

"I don't feel like talking." Harry snapped.

"Go sit down in the living room, we're going to talk." Sirius said as calmly as possible.

"Well, I don't want to talk, unless you didn't hear me the first time."

"Get in the living room!" Sirius said commandingly, but Harry just stood where he was, glaring at Sirius, trying to make the taller man back down.

"NOW HARRY!" Sirius shouted. Harry's glare drop and a look of apprehension took over. He stared at Sirius with wide eyes. This was the first time that Sirius had ever actually yelled at Harry. It reminded Harry of when his uncle would yell. Fearing that the situation would develop into one similar to the fights he had at Privet Drive, Harry meekly walked to the couch, avoiding Sirius' eyes as he passed.

Harry sat down and looked towards the floor. Sirius took a deep breath before sitting down on the coffee table across from Harry.

"What's going on, Harry?" Sirius asked calmly, trying to regain composure.

"Nothing." Harry mumbled.

"Nothing?" Sirius repeated.

"Nothing."

"Are you doing drugs?" Sirius asked blatantly.

"What?" Harry replied, looking at Sirius in confusion.

"Are you doing drugs?" Sirius repeated.

"No."

"Don't lie to me, Harry." Sirius said, looking disappointed.

"I'm not!" Harry protested.

"Then what's this?" Sirius asked, pulling out the bag of pot that had fallen out of Harry's jumper pocket. Harry looked at Sirius in shock. His godfather thought he was doing drugs, great; the night couldn't get any better. Harry should have calmly explained about how Brock had given the pot to him and how Harry had no desire to do drugs whatsoever, but he couldn't. Anger took over his body, leaving no room for rationality.

"You were looking through my stuff! Who the hell gave you the right to look through my stuff?"

"I wasn't looking through your stuff; _this_ fell out of your pocket when I went to hang your sweater up!"

"What I have in pockets is none of your fucking business!" Harry shouted, standing up and walking towards the wall, back turned towards Sirius.

"Everything about you is my business! What you smoke, what you eat, everything. I'm your godfather and everything about you is my business, Harry!"

"Give it back to me!" Harry said, turning back towards his godfather.

Sirius shook his head, "No. Of course I'm not going to give this back to you. Are you crazy, Harry? Do you have any idea how bad this stuff is for you? Not to mention the fact that it is illegal!"

"You know what; I don't give a shit about what you say. I'll just get more if I want to. You're a fucking hypocrite, you know that! I can do all this shit when I'm at the Dursleys and you don't care then because when I'm with them, I'm not your responsibility. All the smoking and crap, you only care if I do it here because that makes you responsible! Don't even fucking try to tell me what to do because you're a fucking hypocrite and I don't have to listen to a word you say! You didn't give a shit about anything I did until you became responsible for the-boy-who-fucking-lived! You couldn't care less three weeks ago if I was smoking pot or not!"

"Don't even pull that, Harry! I care more about you than you could ever fucking realize! You areN'T EVEN THIRTEEN years old! my twelve-year-old godson is _not_ going to smoke pot or smoke anything else for that matter ever again! I gave you the benefit of the doubt that if I gave you a chance to stop doing all this crap by yourself that I wouldn't need to be on your case about it! I thought that you could handle the situation like an adult. Apparently I was wrong and if you're going to act like a child then you'll be treated like one! I can be your worst nightmare if you make me, Harry. I'll be on your case every three seconds if I feel like it! I can search your room if I want! You can hate me for it! I don't care if you hate me! I care about you, and don't you ever accuse me of not caring! I care more than you could ever know! You're stopping all this shit today!"

"It's too fucking late for you to tell me what I can and CAN'T do!" Harry shouted, his face was red. Sirius got up and walked towards Harry and said, "Come on, go sit down, calm down." Sirius placed his hands on Harry's shoulders.

"No! Get off me!"

"Harry, calm down." Sirius said as Harry tried to struggle out of his grip.

"GET OFF OF ME!" Harry shouted.

"HARRY, SIT DOWN, Just calm down!"

"I don't have to listen to you! YOU'RE NOT MY DAD OR MY MUM. YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO."

"I'm your godfather and I have every right to tell you what you can and can't do."

"You don't even want me here!"

"What?" Sirius asked, loosening his grip on Harry as he stared at his godson, totally baffled.

"The only reason you want me here is because of my parents! You think it's your fault that they're dead! That's the only reason you care about me, because of your own fucking guilt, not because of me!" Harry screamed as he pulled out of Sirius' grasp, talking a few steps away from the long haired man.

"That isn't true. Harry, that isn't true at all." Sirius said delicately, taking a step toward his godson.

"It's true, it's all fucking true, you feel guilty, and I don't need your fucking pity. I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF! I'VE BEEN TAKING CARE OF MYSELF FOREVER!" Harry turned to walk away but Sirius grabbed hold of his shoulders again.

"GET OFF ME!" Harry yelled.

But Sirius wouldn't let go. Sirius struggled with Harry, trying to get him to sit back down and trying to calm Harry down. Sirius eventually pushed Harry back onto the couch, careful, not to hurt him.

"DON'T YOU EVER FUCKING TOUCH ME!"

"Harry-"

"NO! DON'T YOU EVER FUCKING TOUCH ME! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TOUCH ME! THAT WAS CHILD ABUSE WHAT YOU JUST DID; I COULD HAVE YOU ARRESTED FOR THAT!" Harry said, breathing heavy and tears welling up in his eyes.

Sirius' face looked horrified. He looked to the floor and then looked back at Harry who was huddled into the corner of the couch. Sirius sighed and walked over to Harry, kneeling down to his level.

Sirius reached out slowly and took Harry's hands in his own. Harry looked up at Sirius, piercing him with teary, emerald eyes and a frightened look on his face.

Sirius spoke quietly, not wanting to scare Harry further. "Remember the story I told you about when I was younger? How my father would hit me and make me feel like shit all the time? He use to do that so he could show me that I was worthless compared to him, that I was weak. I swore to myself that I would never be like my father and I would never hurt a child just because I was stronger. Harry, I will never hurt you. I will never ever hit you, beat you or abuse you. Never. I don't want to hurt you. I want to help you. You're not happy. I can see it in your face, in your eyes. You aren't happy with your aunt and uncle, not here with me, not anywhere. I can see it in your answer to everything, it's like you're barely alive, Harry. Like you're just drifting through life in misery. That's no way to live. And, I don't know what to do kiddo. How can I help you if you wont tell me what's wrong?"

"You can't help me." Harry said quietly, tears streaming down his face. "No one can help me."

"I can try."

Harry shook his head and said quickly, "No, no, you can't. It's too late for that."

"Why can't I help you, Harry?" Sirius asked softly, looking into Harry's eyes.

"It wouldn't change anything. Too much has happened."

"What does that mean? Harry, what does that mean: Too much has happened? What happened, Harry? Did your uncle do something to you, or one of your friends?" Sirius asked gently.

"Telling you-it, it can't change what happened."

"Maybe it can't change what happened in the past but maybe we can prevent what ever happened to you from happening again in the future. I don't like seeing you upset, Harry. I care about you too much to let you grow up being unhappy and upset all the time. If you tell me what's wrong, Harry, I promise I will do everything in my power to make things right again. But you need to tell me what's going on kiddo. I can't read minds. I can't help you unless I know what happened."

Harry swallowed and took a wobbly breath and said in a broken voice, "A lot has happened, Sirius. A lot has happened."

"Like what?"

Harry finally couldn't take it anymore. All the pain and the emotion he had been hiding for so long was finally threatening spilling out. Harry couldn't handle it anymore. He hadn't slept in days. Between the beatings from his uncle replaying in his mind for years and the nightmares, Harry was physically and emotionally exhausted. He broke down, sobbing like a child. Harry put his head in his hands and between sobs said in muffled voice, "I want everything to go away."

Sirius pulled himself off the floor and sat next to Harry, pulling his godson into a hug. Harry tried to struggle out of the hug, but gave up, being too tired to fight anymore. Harry buried his head into Sirius' chest as he cried; attaching himself to Sirius' shirt like it was his lifeline. Sirius wrapped his arms tightly around Harry and rubbed small circles into his back. Harry melted into the embrace, feeling safer in Sirius' arms than he had ever felt in his life, crying openly. Everything that Harry had been holding back for so long was finally being released.

Sirius took a breath and continued to rub calming circles into Harry's back. Fighting back his own tears, he said softly, "Shh…its okay, Harry. Everything is going to be alright now. I'm here kiddo. I won't let anything bad happen to you. I'm here; I'll always be here for you."

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**AN**: Harry finally broke down. I've actually had this chapter written out since chapter three. I just had to change a few things because I changed the story from my original plan a little, but the scene still worked out well. I actually got the idea for this chapter from the movie Life as a House, which is an amazing movie that everyone should watch!

When I first wrote this out, I didn't have the bit with Sirius and Remus talking. Did that work out well? I always got this impression of Sirius (Especially in book 5), that he felt like he was always failing Harry. I wanted to try and convey Sirius feeling like he was failing as a godfather. I don't know, I though it worked out well.

I hope everyone liked this. I tried to write in a way that I though the Harry that I write about would have acted. I also hope that Sirius' part in this came across well. I really liked how Harry's breakdown was. I hope it wasn't too flamboyant or not dramatic enough.

The next chapter will be Harry and Sirius talking more and you'll find out how the whole Brock/Mauricio thing actually ended. I bet you were all shocked at what I wrote about with Harry in the car. It was a bit difficult to write, probably a bit difficult to stomach while reading as well. I hope I didn't offended anyone with that, I was trying to write it in a way that it wasn't really distasteful (Although the though of Mauricio doing something to Harry sends chills your spine anyway.)

The story is coming to an end. I think only two more or three chapters left.

Please review, be nice.

Before I forget; the Mauricio story.

Okay, so it goes like this. When I was younger, I used to go to sleep away camp (Camp Eagle Hill). This all took place the summer I was thirteen.

There was a tennis instructor at the camp named Mauricio and he was this creepy 40 year old man with long brown hair and really hairy arms and he always wore sunglasses, even inside and at night. He was from another country because he had an accent. He was from someplace in Latin America (I can't remember where exactly).

Anyway, during tennis he used to flirt with the counselors and even some of the teenage campers and it was so scary. He used to help you with tennis by placing his arms on your racket and he was always like, "You need to swing harder!" and he'd have his hands on yours and it was soooo creepy, it really grossed you out, cause he had a beer belly and everything. Luckily, I personally didn't have to have tennis with him, he wasn't my tennis instructor, thank god I had one of the girls, but you would watch him from across the court and you would be like ew.

There was this counselor Katie who Mauricio really liked. She was tall, blonde and in her early twenties and Mauricio one day asked her in a really seductive voice, "Would you like to come with me and sit on my blanket under the stars by the lake?" And he wasn't kidding. He was totally serious and she was all grossed out.

After that we would always say that line to her in Mauricio's voice. It was really funny (It's actually funnier when I tell the story in person because I do the creepy accent and everything lol). So when I was writing about the guy in the car, I was like, I need someone really creepy to model this after so I picked him. No offense to anyone named Mauricio, not all Mauricio's are like the one I knew.

**Anyway, please review! Reviews are good! **


	12. Talking through the pain

AN: well, I'm really happy from the response I got from my last chapter but at the same time I'm slightly annoyed at the website. I had certain sentences that were all capitals and when it was put on the website the all caps thing didn't transfer. So there was actually a little more yelling then it looked like. Sorry about that. Oh well, at least the point still got across. Lol. Enjoy chapter 12.

This would have been up a little sooner but I had to get all four of my wisdom teeth out so I felt a bit crappy for a few days. Lol. Good reviews will make me feel better!

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Chapter 12: Talking through the pain

Sirius placed two mugs of hot chocolate down on the table as he sat down across from his godson. Harry gratefully took a mug, wrapping his hands around the hot beverage, letting the warmth of the mug heat up his hands. Harry lifted the mug and took a sip of it, instantly making him feel a little better. Surprisingly, Sirius made a pretty decent hot chocolate. Harry and Sirius had relocated themselves to the kitchen, feeling like it was a better place for them to talk.

Sirius took a sip from his own mug, wondering how he should start the conversation. Luckily, Harry spoke up first.

"I don't know what to say." Harry chuckled softly, looking a bit embarrassed.

"That's okay." Sirius reassured. "Why don't you just start with your relatives. We can cover everything else from there."

Harry nodded and took another sip of his hot chocolate. He placed his mug back on the table and looked into the hot drink, avoiding Sirius' eyes. "You know the story you told me about your family? Living with the Dursleys is sort of like that."

"I had a feeling that was the case." Sirius said. "I have a sort of sixth sense when it comes to stuff like that. Plus, you kept avoiding the topic of family and that was a clear giveaway on its own…"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Harry said quietly, looking up at Sirius.

"It's alright, Harry. I'm just glad that you're telling me now." Sirius said. He paused a moment before speaking quietly. "How bad does it get?"

Harry looked down again, his eyes focused on the mug in his hands as he spoke. He took a deep breath before starting. "Not too bad. I mean once in a while I'll get punch or something, but mostly I just get slapped in the head and stuff like that. Sometimes Dudley will punch me in the stomach if I pass him or shove me into something. My uncle has hit me with a belt before, but it never left a mark like the one on your back. I heal sort of quickly. Mostly he just slaps me around. It doesn't happen very often anymore. It used to be worse when I was younger. I think they stopped a lot of it because they are afraid I'll blow them up with magic or something."

"When was the last time your uncle hit you?" Sirius asked.

"Last week. I forgot to clean up a mess in the living room. He slapped me around a bit for it." Harry said softly, his eyes still downcast at the table.

Sirius could tell how much the Dursleys had affected Harry just by the way his godson talked about them. Harry's voice was soft and quiet, his eyes avoided Sirius', making Sirius understand how small the Dursleys made Harry feel.

"It's okay to be upset and scared about this, you know. This is a tough thing for someone your age to deal with." Sirius spoke after a moment of silence.

"I know." Harry said quietly. "It's just; I don't really like talking about this stuff."

Sirius nodded. "Well, I can't really imagine anyone who actually likes talking about this stuff but it's good to get this all off your chest."

Harry nodded and Sirius continued speaking. "You'll never go back to them, Harry. I promise you that. You're staying here with me from now on. They can't hurt you anymore. You don't need to be afraid." Harry nodded again.

The room drifted into another silence, giving Harry and Sirius both time to have some more hot chocolate. Sirius lifted the mug to his lips, taking a long sip before placing the mug back down on the table. "Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"He never-I mean, did your uncle ever…_touch_ you?" Sirius asked, hoping the answer would be no.

"No, he never did. Not like that." Harry replied truthfully, looking up at his godfather.

Sirius nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. Harry looked away from Sirius, uncomfortably, prompting Sirius to question Harry again.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Has anyone ever _touched_ you?" Sirius asked, carefully.

"Not exactly." Harry said, after a delayed wait, as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Harry sighed. "You know last week when I was leaving the park and then I met up with you and we went into town and got hot chocolate?"

"Yeah."

"Before I met you, I was hanging out with these kids. They're not wizards or anything, just muggles, but I started hanging out with them in the beginning of the summer. Some of them smoke and do drugs and stuff like that. So, I started hanging out with them because they could get me cigarettes-"

"Or other stuff?" Sirius asked, clearly indicating that he thought that Harry was getting drugs from the kids as well.

Harry shook his head. "No, I only wanted cigarettes from them. The pot was sort of given to me."

Sirius eyed Harry warily. "What kids give away free pot?"

"No, I didn't just get it for free. There was a reason it was given to me in the first place."

"Which was?"

Harry sighed and continued his story. "Besides the kids I was hanging out with there was this guy, Brock. He was the one who was getting me cigarettes and the other kids stuff. He's the one who gave me the pot. Brock asked me to do a job for him and he gave me the pot for doing the job for him."

Harry looked into Sirius' eyes, almost pleading for Sirius to believe him. "I've never smoked pot. I never had any intention to. It just came to me. I wasn't even going to smoke it. I was going to get rid of it myself."

Sirius nodded. "I believe you. You couldn't blame me for thinking that you were doing drugs though. I mean; the evidence sort of fell right in front of me. I'm sorry I didn't trust you."

"It's alright; I didn't really give you a reason to trust me. If I was in your place I probably would have thought the same."

Sirius nodded then asked, getting back to Harry's story, "What was the job Brock wanted you to do?"

"Uh… he wanted me to…ugh, er-he…shit…I don't know how to explain it really." Harry sighed in frustration. How could he describe to Sirius what Brock had tried to get him to do? I mean, it's wasn't as though Brock came out and told him. He tried to weasel him into the situation.

"It's alright." Sirius said, realizing how uncomfortable Harry was. "Just go slow. Start from the beginning. It sounds like this has a story to it."

Harry nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay. Um…the night that I left your house, I went to meet up with Brock and the others around midnight. When I got there, Brock asked me if I wanted to do a job from, but he never actually told me what it was. He told me he'd get my cigarettes and stuff if I did this job for him so I told him that I'd do it."

"Okay." Sirius said, indicating for Harry to continue.

Harry took another breath before continuing. "When I finally went to do the job, Brock brought me into this part of the park that was all wooded. I hadn't ever been there before. There was a car there, waiting for us. He told me that we were going to meet his friend Mauricio but that was all. So he went into the car and told me to wait outside. Then when he came back he told me to get into the car."

"And you got in?" Sirius asked, fearing that he already knew where Harry's story was going.

Harry nodded, avoiding Sirius' eyes again. "I thought Brock was coming too, but he didn't get it, he just walked away. So I was left with Mauricio."

Harry stopped talking at this point and his hands were shaking slightly on the coffee mug. Sirius asked softly, "What happened in the car, Harry?"

It took Harry a few minutes to answer, but when he finally did; his voice was quiet, barely above a whisper. "Mauricio, he put his arm around my shoulders and was just asking me questions for a while. The he started to move his hands. He tried to, he tried…"

"What did he try, Harry?" Sirius asked, a little more commanding.

"He tried to unzip my pants." Harry said in a shaky voice. Sirius closed his eyes and took a breath, fearing the next part of Harry's story. He opened his eyes and watched Harry for a moment before speaking again.

"What happened after that, Harry?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know." Harry said softly as he shook his head, his eyes still fixed on his mug.

"Harry, come on, don't say you don't know. Something obviously happened next." Sirius demanded.

"I tried to pull his hands away from me." Harry replied.

"Then what?" Sirius persisted.

"I don't know, I felt like something surged through my body and everything got really hot."

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, not expecting Harry to reply the way he did.

"When I touched him, I sort burnt him I think, because he drew his hands back and just looked at them, like when I touched him his hands were on fire or something even though they weren't. He started calling me a freak and threw me out of the car then drove away really quickly. I don't know how it happened. It was so fast and everything. I've never done anything like that before. My magic, it's never been like fire. I think it was accidental magic or something."

Sirius thought for a moment. "Accidental magic, eh?"

Harry nodded, looking at Sirius who was watching him with great interest.

"How were you feeling when Mauricio was near you like that?" Sirius asked, resting his chin in his hand, leaning an elbow on the table, still watching Harry with a scrutinizing glance.

"Scared, I guess. I was really scared. I felt like I couldn't move too, like my body was frozen in place because I was so scared. I just wanted to stop him from doing anything. I wanted to protect myself." Harry said quietly, moving his eyes to Sirius.

Sirius nodded as a look of vague recognition grew across his face.

"What?" Harry asked, concerned about Sirius' look.

Sirius shook his head and let out a deep sigh. "Nothing, nothing, I'm just a little impressed actually."

"Huh?" Harry asked.

"Harry, for accidental magic to occur a person has to be feeling a really intense emotion, like extreme anger or fear. Most of the time when someone performs accidental magic they normal just break things or make the room shake a little. To actually protect yourself with accidental magic is a pretty difficult thing to do."

"So what are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that I don't think it was accidental magic that protected you."

"What?" Harry exclaimed, totally baffled.

Sirius gave Harry a sad smile. "I think it was your mum."

Harry gave Sirius a blank look, not understanding what Sirius was getting at. Sirius continued, "Harry, you could be right, it could have just been accidental magic that protected you, but I think it was more than that. When your mother died, she sacrificed herself for you. It's very old magic, but by her doing that, it gave you extra protection from harm. When Mauricio tried to touch you, your mother's protection shielded you from him. It saved you."

Harry pondered the situation briefly before speaking. "I guess it makes sense. I mean, in my first year, the reason Voldemort couldn't touch me was because of my mother's protection. I guess it worked the same way with Mauricio."

Sirius sighed again. "I guess so. It's a good thing that you had that extra protection, Harry. Do you realize what could have happened if your magic didn't act up at that moment? Do you realize what you got yourself into? That was beyond dangerous."

Harry nodded and looked away from his godfather. Sirius sighed and asked gently, "Harry, why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know. I wasn't sure how to."

"Still, I just, I don't want you to feel like he have to keep things from me. Harry, what happened to you, no one your age should ever have that happen to them. You could have been raped or killed. Harry, people like that are sick. If you had said something earlier maybe we could have done something about it. The sick fuck is probably miles away by now. Promise me that you'll never get into anything like that ever again."

"I promise. I don't want to get into anything like that again." Harry said quietly, and then looked back up at Sirius, his green eyes still showing fear. "I was really scared. More scared than I've ever been before. It was worse then getting hit by my uncle. I can't stop thinking about it. It keeps replaying in my mind everything I close my eyes. I haven't slept in days."

"It will take away from the pain to go away, but talking really helps, Harry. Trust me. Something like that, it will never leave you kiddo, I'm not going to lie to you about that. You've already seen more than most kids your age will ever see. You'll carry this with you forever, it will never go away, Harry, but the pain gets less. The fear goes away and it just becomes another part of your life. You'll learn not to think about it. It will take time, but things will go back to the way they were-"

"I don't want things to go back to the way they were. My life wasn't exactly peachy up till then."

"Well, you know what you do in that case?"

"What?"

"You make a new life. A better one. You're with me now. You have a second chance, Harry. Your life might not have been perfect, and no, we can't change the past, but we can change your future. Harry, before, you were going nowhere fast, and now, you have your whole life ahead of you. Everything will work out in time. You'll see, everything will get better soon."

Harry nodded, giving Sirius a small smile, feeling a little bit better than before. Harry yawned, rubbing his eye with the back of his hand.

Sirius smiled. "Tired?"

"A little." Harry said.

"It's late. You should go to bed. It's been a rough night. You should try to get some sleep."

Harry hesitated before speaking. "What if I have a dream about it?"

"Try going to sleep and if you wake up because of a bad dream come wake me and I'll give you a dreamless sleep potion. I don't want to give you some unless you really need it. It isn't good to use potions all the time when it comes to sleeping. It can ruin your natural sleeping patterns because you come to rely on potions."

Harry nodded and stood up, heading to leave the kitchen. He stopped and looked back, expecting Sirius to get up too. "You aren't going to bed?"

"I will. I'm just going to clean up the kitchen a little before I do."

"Okay. Night, Sirius."

"Good night, Harry."

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Harry couldn't sleep. There was just too much going through his mind at the moment. At least he had tried falling asleep; no one could say he didn't try. Harry pulled the covers off himself and rolled out of bed. He walked to his dresser and pulled out a navy, long sleeve shirt that matched his plaid pajama pants, and put it on, feeling a little cold. He opened the door to his room and walked down the hallway, wondering if Sirius was still awake.

Seeing a light poke out from the bottom of Sirius' door, Harry timidly knocked on the door to Sirius' room and waited for a reply.

"Come in." Sirius replied from behind the door, sounding as though he was wide awake.

Harry poked his head into the room. Sirius was sitting Indian style on his bed, wearing a pair of black pajama pants and a dark red long sleeve shirt. Obviously the events from earlier had made Sirius' skin feel cold like Harry's. Spread out on the bed was a grey shoe box with the top open and several pictures spread around the bed.

Sirius looked up at Harry, surprised that Harry was still awake. "Hey kiddo. You okay?"

Harry just shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just…"

Sirius gave Harry a half smile. "You couldn't sleep either, huh?"

Harry shook his head. Sirius nodded, understanding that it was going to be one of _those_ nights were no one was going to be getting much sleep.

"Do you want to come in? I was just sorting through some old photos."

"Okay." Harry said and entered the room, closing the door behind him. Sirius moved some of the pictures out of the way as Harry sat down on the bed. Harry looked around at the pictures, interestingly.

Sirius picked up a picture as he said, "When I was taken to Azkaban most of my possessions were destroyed by the Ministry, but some things were placed into the ministry's storage, like my wand and my bike. Dumbledore actually had saved quite a few things that belong to me as well, not too sure why he saved them but he did. When I saw him last week he handed me a box full of my old stuff."

"What was in it?" Harry asked, picking up one of the pictures on the bed of Sirius standing in front of his motorcycle.

"Some books that I had owned, my knife," Sirius said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a beautifully crafted, black marble handled buck knife. Sirius flipped out the blade, making the metal shine from the light in the room. Harry grinned at the knife, he had to admit; it was pretty cool.

Sirius smiled fondly. "My uncle, Alphard, gave this to me when I turned fifteen. It was probably the best gift I ever got."

"I thought you hated your family." Harry pointed out.

"Not all of them. My uncle wasn't a bad guy. We actually got along really well. I think he looked at me as a son because he didn't have any kids of his own. When he died he left me a good deal of money; I used it to buy my own place when I was seventeen."

"Can I see it?" Harry asked, pointing at the knife.

Sirius nodded and folded the blade back before handing it to Harry. "Just be careful, it's still really sharp."

Harry unfolded the knife and held it in his hand, admiring it. "This is so cool. Your uncle had good taste."

Sirius chuckled. "Yeah, he did. He wasn't a pure-blood maniac like the rest of them. He just kept to himself really and didn't get involved. He also got along well with my cousin Andromeda."

"Who's she?" Harry asked, still examining the knife, much to Sirius' amusement.

"She was my favorite cousin. She wasn't a bighead like the rest of my family. Blood wasn't an important trait to her. We sort of stuck together at family parties and holiday gatherings. She was disowned by the family because she married a muggleborn."

"Do you still talk to her?" Harry asked.

"We spoke briefly after I got out of Azkaban. Maybe I'll get together with her one of these days. I'm sure she'd love to meet you." Sirius said.

Harry extended his hand, giving the knife back to Sirius. "This is really cool."

Sirius smiled. "Maybe I'll give it to you when you're older."

"I am older." Harry smirked.

"Nah, I don't want to get a lecture from Remus about giving minors weapons anytime soon." Sirius smiled. "Maybe next year."

"I guess I can wait." Harry sighed then asked, "What else was in the box that Dumbledore gave to you?"

"Well," Sirius began, "there was something that you might be interested in, but I'm waiting for the right time to give it to you."

"What is it?" Harry asked, highly interested.

Sirius smirked, "The only thing I'll tell you is that it has to do with your dad."

Harry looked exasperated. "Come on, you have to tell me now…"

Sirius grinned and ruffled Harry's hair playfully. "You'll just have to wait, kiddo. Trust me; you'll be glad you waited."

Harry rolled his eyes and grinned. "Alright, alright, I'll wait. What else was in the box?"

"All these pictures." Sirius said, picking up a picture from the bed. "One year at school, your grandmother sent James a camera so he could take pictures of him and his friends, that way he could look back at them when he was older and remember the good old days."

"What did you guys take pictures of?" Harry asked, looking at the piles of pictures on the bed.

"Anything and everything. James took quite a few of Lily that she yelled at him about. That's in this pile." Sirius said as he reached over to a pile and handed Harry a picture of Lily trying to cover the camera with her hand.

Harry laughed at the annoyed look on Lily's face. Her green eyes were narrowed, she was shouting at James who was taking the picture.

"We have pictures of us all in Hogsmeade and just around Hogwarts. There are a couple of nice ones of Remus." Sirius indicated, picking up a picture that one of them had taken of Remus reading a book under a tree by the lake.

"What pictures are in that pile?" Harry asked, pointing to the farthest pile. Sirius' smile dropped. "Some of Pettigrew that were mixed in."

Harry's mouth formed a 'O' shape. He reached over to the pile and picked up one of the pictures. "That's him?"

"It is." Sirius replied dryly, turning his attention to another pile of pictures.

Harry studied the picture for a moment, as though trying to figure something out. After seeing picture of his father and his godfather, Peter just didn't fit into the mix. James, Sirius and Remus were all tall, each with their own good looks and strong personalities. But Pettigrew just didn't fit. He was short with watery eyes and mousey blonde hair. He was a bit on the chubby side and was not as good looking as his friends. This was the man who betrayed his parents. In a way, Harry even felt bad for Pettigrew for seeming so out of place with his friends.

"He seems like the odd man out." Harry said. "I mean, you guys were tall and he's so short. What made you guys become friends in the first place?"

"I don't really remember. It was a long time ago." Sirius replied. "I think he started talking to James about Quidditch on the way to Hogwarts during our first year and then we just all started getting along from there."

"What are you going to do with his pictures?" Harry asked.

"Don't know. Burn them maybe." Sirius said grumpily.

"Like it or not, he's part of your past. Burning his picture doesn't erase him from everything, Sirius."

Sirius half smiled. "When did you become so wise?"

"Don't know. When you're a guy like me who's been so open to the world at such an early age you just pick up these things."

Sirius snorted and ruffled Harry's hair. "Well, 'oh wise one', there are a few pictures in here that have you in them."

"Really?" Harry asked; an excited grin spread across his face.

Sirius nodded and reached into the box and looked through some of the pictures that were still in there. He smiled when he found the ones he was looking for. He handed them to Harry, who took them gratefully.

Harry beamed at the picture he held in his hand. It was a picture of him as a baby, maybe around eight months old. He was in James' arms, giggling as he chewed on James' glasses which he Harry had gotten hold of. James just seemed amused as he tried to pry his glasses from Harry's hands, with little success.

Harry moved to the next picture which was of a younger Sirius tickling his feet, making baby Harry squeal in delight, trying to pull his tiny feet out of his godfather's grip. Lily was in the background of the picture, yelling at Sirius who was ignoring her.

Sirius laughed. "Your mum was yelling at me because I was supposed to be putting your socks on, not playing."

The next picture was of newborn Harry, wrapped in soft blue blankets, sleeping in Lily's arms. James was standing next to her, placing a kiss on her check before moving to plant a kiss on Harry's head, which was already covered with some messy black hair.

"That was the day you came home from the hospital." Sirius said, smiling fondly at the photo. "Remus and I were waiting at your parents place when they arrived. They were so happy to finally bring you home, Harry."

"Where was Pettigrew?" Harry asked.

"He had work or something like that. He dropped by the following day." Sirius said then smiled as he continued telling Harry about the day he was brought home. "You were so small. Your mum was afraid to let me hold you because she thought I was going to drop you."

Harry grinned. "That was a little neurotic of her."

"Just a bit. When we were finally able to pry you from her and I held you, it was like nothing I had ever felt before. You were so tiny. You wrapped you little fingers around my thumb and I remember that I just couldn't stop smiling. And then when James asked me to be your godfather later that night-it was one of them best days of my life that I'll never forget."

Sirius pulled his gaze from the pictures and turned to his godson. "You're parents loved you very much, Harry. Don't forget that."

"I won't." Harry said softly, looking up at Sirius, giving him a small smile. Sirius smiled back before picking up another picture and handing it to Harry, "Here look at this one…"

They spent the rest of the night looking at pictures and talking, forming a bond of trust, that would grow even stronger with in time.

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VERY IMPORTAND AUTHORS NOTE, PLEASE READ!

Okay, first off, I hope everyone liked the chapter. It was a bit mellower than the previous one. I'm hope that everyone was happy to hear that Harry was not raped or molested. I had a really hard time writing this chapter for some reason.

There will only be **one chapter left** and then this story is finished. So here is my question: Does this story need a sequel?

So far I have an idea for a sequel involving Harry learning about James in a unique way. This would take place during his third year at Hogwarts. Remus would still be dark arts teacher and Sirius would still be very important in the story.

But I was just wondering, what are some things that people would really want to see in a sequel. I already have an idea for an argument between Sirius and Harry. But what else?

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Anything for Sirius and Harry to fight about would be good.

Or anything for Sirius and Remus to fight about would be interesting to incorporate in.

Or Sirius and Snape, somehow involving Harry. That could be interesting too.

I already have a funny situation planned out involving Fred, George and a certain Marauders map...thanks to glory boots for that idea…I cant wait till I write about that.

Hmm…what else does a sequel need?

More Sirius and Harry bonding perhaps? I already know that I am going to have the story start out on a much lighter note, bringing more of the fun side out in Sirius, making him and Harry a bit more relaxed.

Also, if James and Sirius were to have a fight about something when they were younger (around 15 or 16) what would it be (besides the Whomping willow incident)?

Give me some ideas people! I already have a few in mind but any little bit helps. I love to hear what others think. I don't have anything written in stone as of right now of if there are any specific things someone wants to happen just let me know. I don't even know if I will be writing a sequel yet lol. Just want to here from everyone first. Thanks everyone.

Please review.


	13. A Change of Scenery

AN: Here it is everyone, the last chapter. I hope everyone likes it and remember, this is the last chance to **Review!**

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Chapter 13: A Change of Scenery

The next two weeks passed quickly for Harry and Sirius. They both met with Dumbledore, permanently changing Harry's living arrangements to Sirius' place (After placing even stronger protection wards on the house). Remus stopped by often for dinner, letting them all just relax and enjoy each others company.

Over the week Harry wrote to Ron and Hermione for the first time all summer, telling them about how he was living with his godfather (He left out the bit about why he moved in with Sirius, not wanting his friends to know about the abuse). Ron and Hermione were both shocked to hear how Sirius Black, ex-murder, was the godfather to The-Boy-Who-Lived, but they were glad to here that Harry was okay. Ron was even more shocked at the fact that it had been his brothers that actually caused Sirius' name to be cleared. Who knew that years of sibling squabbling would actually lead to the discovery that their pet rat wasn't really a rat after all?

Ron and Hermione told Harry about their summers through their letters. Ron was on vacation in Egypt and Hermione was in France with her parents. They both were eager to see Harry before school started and were already making plans to meet in Diagon Alley later in the summer.

On July thirty first, Harry spent his birthday with Sirius and Remus, they decided that it was best to just have a small celebration between the three of them; it had been a rough summer and the idea of being surrounded by a bunch of people didn't really excite Harry at the moment. He liked the idea of taking things easy and having a quiet party. And although his party was small, it was easily the best birthday Harry had ever had. Sirius bought Harry a bunch of new clothes and gave him his knife, knowing how much Harry liked it. Remus gave him a set of books about Quidditch which he loved. Hermione and Ron sent him their gifts, Hermione got him a Broomstick Servicing Kit and Ron sent him a Pocket Sneakoscope. For the first time all summer, Harry was starting to feel like himself and was looking forward to seeing his friends again.

Harry and Sirius were getting to know each other better, mostly discussing little things like favorite foods and Quidditch, making up for all the years they spent apart. Harry learned that Sirius' favorite color was dark blue and that he had a fear of hiccups (He became afraid of them after reading an article about a man who had hiccups for seven years straight). He found that his godfather loved cook and wanted to be a chef at one time. Even though he had only started cooking again once he was freed from Azkaban, Sirius hadn't lost his touch and the food he made was great.

Harry, with much encouragement and support from Sirius, threw away his cigarettes, finally deciding to kick the habit. Because of the amount He had been smoking over the summer, his nicotine addiction was stronger than he realized, making him slightly irritable when he was going through the nicotine withdrawal. Sirius was able to bring Harry out of his sour moods by telling amusing stories about his days at Hogwarts (Many including Sirius and James sneaking around at night with the aid of a map Sirius and his friends had created) or by telling a few jokes, instantly bringing a smile to Harry's face.

Harry couldn't remember when he had been happier. Being at Sirius house was doing wonders for his nerves. He was less edgy and much more relaxed. Harry was still jumpy around physical affection and would tense up a bit when Sirius would surprise him with a hug. They both knew that it would take time for him to stop associating psychical contact with abuse; so far Harry was progressing nicely and was becoming less tense with the idea of the surprise hugs. In a way, Harry found them comforting.

When Thursday arrived, Sirius and Harry decided to take a trip back to the Dursleys to pick up Harry's things. He was a little nervous about going back, even though he knew it was just going to be a quick trip to get his stuff. Sirius saw that Harry was feeling apprehensive about the situation. He did his best to reassure his godson that everything was going to be fine, and although this did seem to help a little, Harry was still worried.

They arrived at the Dursleys around one in the afternoon. Luckily Vernon was out in town with Dudley and his sister who had come to visit during the week. If he had been home Sirius would have probably transformed him into a slug then stepped on him. Petunia stayed away from Harry and Sirius, taking refuge in the kitchen while they were packing up Harry's room.

They quickly packed up Harry's room, placing a few books and clothes into his school trunk, Sirius then shrunk it with a flick of his wand and placed it in his pocket for easy traveling. With one final glare at his aunt, Sirius and Harry left the house, not looking back as they closed the door behind them.

Sirius got on his motorcycle and put his helmet on. Harry was about to get on when a voice called out to him.

"Harry!" It was Ben. He was walking down the block with Taylor, holding hands. He waved at Harry, smiling brightly.

Harry turned to Sirius, "I'll be right back."

"Okay." Sirius said, eyeing the Ben and Taylor warily.

Harry walked over to Ben and Taylor, noticing how different they looked. Ben's face had healed since the last time they he seen each other and was no longer swollen. He was dressed nicely wearing a red button up shirt and nice jeans. Taylor also looked different. Harry almost didn't recognize her at first. He black hair had been dyed a light brown color. Her face was fuller than before and brighter. Her hazel eyes were more carefree, as though she had gotten a good night sleep. One thing Harry noticed is that they were happy, both smiling. He also noticed how friendly they seemed towards each other. Some things had obviously changed over the past week.

"Hey." Ben said nervously.

"Hi." Harry replied, not meeting Ben's eyes.

"Do you think I can talk to Harry alone?" Ben asked Taylor.

"Sure." She nodded then turned to Harry and said, "It was nice seeing you again, Harry."

"You too." Harry said, looking back up at her as she walked away from the two, giving them some privacy to talk.

"So," Ben cleared his throat, "how have you been?"

"I've been alright." Responded Harry, timidly.

Ben nodded. He gave Harry a small smile. "You look different." Ben said, taking in Harry's appearance. He wasn't wearing his usual hand-me-downs from Dudley but a nice dark blue jacket and a white tee-shirt. Harry's jeans weren't baggy and actually fit him nicely.

Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks. My godfather bought me some new clothes the other day." Harry paused and looked at Ben again, observing the changes in the older boy. "You and Taylor look different too."

"Yeah," Ben said, rubbing the back of his neck like Harry had, "we've been pretty good, staying out of trouble and whatnot. She made me go shopping with her yesterday and we bought some new stuff."

"Her hair looks nice. I like it better than the black." Harry comment, looking over at Taylor. She was standing next to Sirius, both of them talking about their love of motorcycles.

"That's what I said also." Ben beamed. "I told her how I liked her hair better when it was lighter so she dyed it to something less dramatic."

"Have you guys been spending a lot of time together lately?" Harry asked.

Ben grinned. "Yeah, well, we're dating now; doing stuff together comes with the couple territory."

"Really. When did that happen?"

"Last Thursday."

"So she left Brock then…" Harry said, more to himself then Ben.

Ben nodded. "Yeah, we aren't exactly hanging around with Brock anymore. He's a dick, you know. She was sick of him treating her like crap and I was tired of dealing with him. I've got school to worry about and Taylor is starting to get her act together and it's easier to do that without Brock and all his bullshit."

"I'm sure Brock was thrilled about that." Harry replied sarcastically. "Taylor was one of his better customers, so were you."

"I'm not doing any of that crap anymore. Neither is Taylor. She started going to these meeting things to help her clean up her act and stuff. I was really proud of her, it was her own decision too; her parents didn't force her to go or anything."

"I guess Brock will need to find new people to sell crap to then."

"Well, Brock isn't exactly selling much of anything right now." Ben snorted.

"What do you mean?" Harry inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Brock was busted by the cops a few days ago." Ben explained.

"Are you serious?" Harry gaped.

Ben nodded then gave Harry a sly smile. "Yeah. Let's just say that the cops got a mysterious tip from an anonymous person about some of the things that were going on involving dear old Brock."

Harry stared at Ben in disbelief. "You ratted him out? Why?"

Ben pulled his eyes from Harry's and looked towards the ground. "The other day when you said that I should have said something to my dad but I didn't because I was covering my own ass-"

"I didn't mean to make you feel bad about that, I was just upset." Harry broke in.

"No, you had every right to be upset. You were right. I could have stopped everything but I didn't because I was protecting myself. I couldn't stop thinking about what you said though." Ben chuckled softly, "What you said just kept replaying in my mind. I was losing sleep over it because I felt so guilty. So, I talked to Taylor about it and we decided that we could let the cops know what was going on with Brock without them actually knowing it was us who told them. We made an anonymous call to them."

"So what happened to Brock?" Harry asked.

"The cops got warrant and they searched Brock's house. The found tons of illegal drugs and arrested him. He's supposedly going to spend some time in jail for it unless he can pay a rather large fee."

"Wow." Harry said, "I never expected that to happen."

Ben nodded and took a deep breath before speaking again. "Harry, I'm really sorry that I didn't say anything to my dad. You could have been killed or something. You never should have been put in the position you were in and I'm really sorry and I just hope that you can forgive me."

Harry could tell by the look on Ben's face that he truly was sorry. But Harry didn't blame Ben. Harry knew that it wasn't Ben who had gotten him into the situation. If Harry had been in his place, chances are he wouldn't have said anything either.

Harry nodded and pierced Ben with his emerald eyes. "Ben, it isn't your fault. I'm not mad or anything. I don't blame you. I never did blame you. I was just upset the other day. I was my fault that I got into the situation in the first place. If I hadn't been so stupid then none of it would have happened at all."

"It wasn't really your fault either. It was Brocks." Ben pointed out.

Harry nodded in agreement. "It was a little of everyone's fault I guess."

"But mostly Brocks." Ben smirked, making Harry snort in amusement.

Ben grinned at Harry then looked towards Taylor who was still talking to Sirius. "So, that's your godfather?"

Harry looked towards Sirius and smirked. "That's him."

"He seems cool. I like the motorcycle. I wish my godfather had a motorcycle." Ben Joked. "He seems like a good guy, he's listening to Taylor's babbling so he must be really nice then. Most people would have told her to shut up by now."

"Yeah, he's really nice." Harry said, giving Ben a small smile. "I'm going to live with him from now on. That's why I'm actually here today. We just came to tie up a few loose ends with my relatives."

"That's good, Harry. You needed to get away from your uncle." Ben said and Harry just nodded in agreement.

They stood silently for a moment before Ben spoke. "Does he treat you well? I mean, I'm sure anything is better then living with your aunt and uncle, but are you happier with him? You always seemed so down all the time…"

Harry looked back over at Sirius who was letting Taylor try on his helmet, making them both laugh in amusement. Harry half smiled. "You know, I am happy. Sirius is really great. I can talk to him about stuff. I trust him, even though I haven't known him that long. I've never really trusted anyone before."

"I'm glad that things worked out for you. For both of us really." Ben said then sighed. "So, this is it then? This is the last time you'll be around here?"

Harry nodded. Ben gave Harry a sad smile. "It will be weird not having you around."

"It will be weird not being here." Harry said truthfully, it wasn't until now that he had actually stopped to think that this was the last time he'd ever see the Dursleys.

"It's probably for the best though. It will be better for you to be away from here."

Harry nodded. Ben smiled sadly. "You take care of yourself, Harry."

Harry smiled back. "I will."

Ben nodded and nudged his head towards Sirius and Taylor and smirked. "We should probably get over there and save your godfather from Taylor. She can be a bit chatty."

Harry snorted at the comment as he and Ben walked back over to Sirius and Taylor.

"Hello." Sirius said as they approached. He smiled at Harry and asked, "Ready?"

Harry nodded as Taylor went to stand next to Ben, their fingers threading together. Ben squeezed her hand gently as he said to Harry, "See you around, Harry."

Harry just smiled and nodded. With a final wave, Ben and Taylor turned away and continued walking down the street, holding hands.

"Who was that?" Sirius asked as Harry climbed onto the motorcycle.

"That was Ben."

"He seems like a nice kid. His girlfriend really liked my bike." Sirius grinned.

"Yeah, they're both really nice."

"So, you ready to go?"

"Yeah." Harry said.

And with that, Sirius started the engine and drove down the street away from the Dursleys, neither of them looking back as number four Privet Drive faded out of sight.

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The sunset crept into the window of the kitchen, providing the room with the last hours of daylight. Sirius stood at the stove, making some soup for dinner. The smell of freshly baked rolls came from the pan cooling on the countertop.

Harry leaned against the kitchen door frame, just watching his godfather cook, the aroma from the soup and rolls making him feel hungry. Harry slowly walked into the kitchen, his bare feet padding on the cool floor, hands in his pockets as he went to stand next to his godfather.

Without saying a word, Harry awkwardly wrapped his arms around Sirius' waist, resting his head on his godfather's chest. Sirius stopped cooking and returned the hug, surprised at the sudden embrace. He gave Harry a small smile as his godson pulled away.

"What was that for?" Sirius asked, ruffling Harry's hair, making it even messier.

Harry shrugged. "Nothing, just wondered what it felt like."

"How'd it feel?"

Harry chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck, "A bit awkward."

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh and pulled Harry back into a one armed hug, using his other hand to stir the soup. He looked down at Harry and smiled. "Still awkward?"

Harry smirked. "Not as much as before."

They stayed like that for a while, Harry resting his head on his godfather as Sirius kept a comforting grip on Harry. It would take time to heal their pasts and to make the pain fade away. It would be a bumpy road for them, after all, two strong personalities are bound to clash occasionally, but they knew, they had each other and that would be enough for them to overcome anything that came their way.

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THE END!

AN: A Change of Scenery is now officially complete. I hope everyone liked the last chapter. It tied up a few loose ends that needed to be dealt with. I'm really happy with how this story went. Wow, I feel so accomplished because this the first story with chapters that I finished.

Okay, I'm sure everyone is wondering about a sequel. I will be writing a sequel after all. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do in my sequel. I just have a few things I need to work out (mostly dealing with Voldemort stuff and a few other details. I need to decide how close to the books I want to stay or if I want to do my own thing with it). So if you want to know when the sequel will be up you can check my profile which is updated regularly, it will have some sequel info up shortly. Or, you can put me on your author alerts or email me from time to time.

Once again, thank you to everyone who read the story and reviewed. **Special thanks to glory boots, batman sporks, ****-loose lips sink ships-****, and ****gatermage**** who review practically every chapter.**

Thanks to all who gave me ideas for things they would like to see in the sequel. That always helps in the writing process. Anyway, thanks again to everyone and please review.

Until the sequel,

Living-is-easy-with-eyes-closed


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